


I Don't Care Anymore!

by ZVArmy



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Drama, F/M, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-05-30 08:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15092546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZVArmy/pseuds/ZVArmy
Summary: A brutal attack on Sasha Banks paves the way for something a lot of people could never have imagined: Bayley becoming the top female heel on Raw. (Established Bayley/Seth relationship)





	1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This story takes place in an existing world, following on from my stories The New Authority and The Hugger's Return. However, I will be writing it in such a way that new readers can pick the series up with this story without necessarily needing to read the other two stories first. Having said that, new readers need to be aware that there is an established relation between Seth Rollins and Bayley, and that they are engaged to be married._

_As my regular readers will know, I've been looking to return to writing in this world for some time now. My problem was that I didn't have the spark of inspiration needed to get me going. That spark came this week with Bayley's beat down of Sasha Banks. I'm fairly confident that WWE will go on to make a mess of what promises to be something great, so what we're going to do is take the start they gave us and make sure something great does come from it. Enjoy!_

* * *

"You ain't shit," Bayley snarled at Sasha Banks, leaning down over her with her fingers clenched tight around her chin.

The use of the non-PG language was the culmination of a beat down that was in itself a culmination of months of lacklustre build work by WWE towards a Bayley heel turn. It would be her second heel run; the first being her stint as commissioner of Raw. When that role had ended, Bayley had taken some time off before returning as her previous hugger character. Unfortunately, the second coming of the hugger just hadn't been the same. It had not been possible to put the genie back in the bottle. Rather than a resurgence in popularity, the change of character had simply seen Bayley go stale, achieving essentially nothing in her career for several months. It had reached the point where she got pretty much no reaction from the audience when she came out to wrestle.

At one time, Bayley could never have imagined a scenario where she would request a heel turn. Indeed, when she had been told about her first turn, she had been literally heartbroken. This time, however, she had been the one to go to Vince McMahon and request to be allowed to become a heel once more. After some reluctance and dithering, the trigger had finally been pulled on the idea, at least in a sense.

A program had been started where Bayley and Sasha Banks, friends for so long, had started to have differences with each other. Heel turns had been teased multiple times for both women, in a run that had gone on for way too long in most people's opinions. But now, finally, the turn had actually happened, and it had been Bayley who had turned on Sasha.

Already there was a problem, however. Rather than booing her, the fans were cheering and chanting her name. Apparently they had waited so long to see her kick Banks's ass that they were delighted to see it, rather than shocked by it. They had lapped up every moment of the ass kicking, even chanting "one more time" to encourage her to continue.

Standing back up, Bayley backed away, still glaring at Sasha. She knew that the commentators would be talking up what had just happened, trying to put over her turn as best they could.

Once she was safe in the knowledge that the segment was at an end and the show had gone to a break, she made her way up the entrance ramp, ignoring the fans who stretched their hands out to her.

Bayley walked back through the curtain to Gorilla and found Hunter Helmsley standing there waiting for her. "Well done, Bay," he said as a form of greeting, giving her a pleasant smile to go with the praise.

"Thanks, Hunter. Although I'm not sure me being cheered was the reaction we were after."

"Don't worry about that," Hunter said without concern, putting a hand on her shoulder to usher her out of Gorilla so that they could chat out of the way of the production team and the wrestlers who would be appearing in Raw's next segment. "Tonight was just the start for the new Bayley. Rome wasn't built in a day. We'll be seeing the next incarnation of Bayley for the first time next week, and I think we're going to surprise some people. We've seen Bayley the businesswoman who ran Raw with an iron fist, but this time it's going to be a different heel Bayley. We have ambitious plans for you, and we think we can make you the most hated woman on Raw."

Bayley managed a smile. "I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but that sounds good to me. What exactly is it that you have planned?"

As she was asking the question, they had reached the door to Hunter's office. He pushed it open and gestured for her to enter before him out of politeness. "Why don't we have a sit down for a few minutes and I'll tell you all about it?"


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm not sure what I think," Bayley said nervously. She was standing in front of a mirror in her hotel room, studying what was going to be the first image the fans got at the new heel Bayley. She was wearing dark blue jeans, a grey t-shirt under an open black leather jacket and black leather gloves. The new look was completed by a pair of long black leather boots, and by the fact that she was wearing her hair down, and had a pair of sunglasses perched on her head.

"You look totally badass, angel," Seth Rollins said, admiring the view from where he was sitting on the end of the bed behind her.

"You really think so?" Bayley asked, turning to face him with a nervous little smile on her face.

"Well, not so much with that look on your face. Come on, get in character."

Bayley did as he asked, replacing her expression with one more suitable for a person who was done wasting their career, and was going to start kicking asses first and asking questions later.

"That's more like it," Seth said approvingly.

"Good," Bayley said with some relief. "This was how Hunter said he wanted me to dress. I went out and bought a whole bunch of new clothes, so I at least need to know I can pull off what they're looking for."

"No doubts about that at all," he assured her. "Now, how about your new ring attire?"

"I'm not changing into it now. I'm going to go to the arena like this, now that I'm wearing it."

"Alright, but let's at least have a look at it," Seth urged, getting up off the bed.

"Eager beaver," Bayley giggled on her way over to her travel case. She took off her gloves and stuffed them into her coat pocket, since they wouldn't been needed until she was due to go on camera that night.

"Okay, here you are," she said as she pulled her new ring attire out of her case and laid it out on the bed. Leather was a theme for the new Bayley. Her attire now consisted of black pants and a sports bra. The pants had the word Bayley on the right leg in white lettering.

"Very nice," Seth said, nodding his appreciation. Naturally, Bayley had described the ring attire she had ordered to him, but this was his first time actually seeing it due to the fact that they had spent the past couple of days on different travel schedules, on WWE business.

"Thanks for recommending that company to me. They really looked after me, getting it made and delivered to me inside a week."

Seth smiled. "No problem. They're probably the best guys I've ever used for ring gear. They make good quality stuff as well. I've recommended them to everyone who has asked me since I first used them that time a few months ago."

"I ordered another few sets, with the 'Bayley' in different colours on each one. I've got a red, blue, purple and green on order."

"That'll be you all set then." Seth looked at her with a mischievous grin. "No matter what colour the writing on the leg is, you'll look hot as hell. I love it when you wear leather, and you know I prefer your hair down."

"I know you do," she said with a hint of sadness in her tone as she walked over to him and into his arms. "But I'm going to miss my ponytail, and I'm going to miss being the kid's favourite. That was the part of the job I loved the most."

"No doubt that's the toughest part of turning heel for you," Seth said, thinking all the way back to the first time Bayley had turned heel, starting an on-screen relationship with him at the same time. That first night, Bayley had been so heartbroken at losing her hugger character that she had crawled into bed with him, in dire need of consolation. A connection had immediately formed between them and they had never really looked back from that night. They were now happily living together and were engaged to be married, albeit with a date yet to be set for the wedding. "You'll get through it though, angel. And we both know it's the best thing for your career right now."

"Oh, I'm not disputing that," she assured him. "But that doesn't meant there aren't parts of my old character I'm going to miss. I'll get used to it. There's definitely a part of me looking forward to the reaction to my new character tonight."

"It will be a Bayley no one expected to ever see," Seth opined. "Much like Commissioner Martinez was. You looked hot in a suit, too, now that I think about it."

Bayley was glad that, as always, he had made her feel happy when that might not have been the case if he hadn't been around. She might have found herself dwelling on the negative aspects of her heel turn, yet here she was standing in her man's arms with a big smile on her face.

"Okay, I'm going to put you on the spot," she teased. "Business suit, or leather jacket?"

"Got to be the leather jacket," Seth replied without hesitation. "As much as I like suits on women, there's nothing like a hot chick in leather. I love this new image for your character." With that, he pulled her to him. Her jacket made what he found to be a very pleasurable sound that was somewhere between a scrunch and a creak. "Mmm," he moaned happily into her mouth as they started kissing passionately.

* * *

Later that day, Bayley and Seth arrived at the arena for Raw. The previous day, she had received a text from Hunter, asking her to come to his office to talk over a few more details regarding her new role on the show. After dropping her case off in the women's locker room, she decided that the best thing to do was get the meeting with the boss out of the way as soon as possible, before things started to get manic backstage.

When she approached Hunter's office, Bayley found the man himself standing in the doorway talking to Stephanie and a couple of backstage employees. Having no idea what the conversation was about, Bayley lingered a short distance away.

It wasn't long at all before Hunter noticed her. He laughed and clapped his hands in approval. "Bayley? Yes, that's exactly the look we wanted. Come in." He motioned for her to enter the office, then said a goodbye to Stephanie and the crew members, who headed off in separate directions to go about other business. Stephanie and Bayley exchanged smiles on the way past each other.

"So, I guess I can skip my first question," Hunter said as he closed the door behind them and followed Bayley over towards his desk. He offered her a seat with another hand gesture and sat behind his desk. "You obviously conjured up the same image of the new Bayley as we did. That's excellent."

Bayley gave a relaxed smile. She'd had a working relationship with Hunter for so many years now that she felt totally at ease around him. "I don't know if you plan to have me wrestle tonight, I only just got here and haven't seen any formats, but I had some new ring attire made and delivered already just in case."

"Already? That was fast," Hunter said with raised eyebrows.

"Seth found this new company that were starting up a few months ago," Bayley explained. "He decided to give them a shot and was very impressed by the service and the quality of what they made for him. I called them, and of course they saw Raw last week and understood the urgency. They promised to get me something in time for tonight, and they came through."

"Well, that's excellent," Hunter said with another smile. "Now, we already talked last week about what's going to happen in terms of you and Sasha building your rivalry. What I wanted to speak to you about now was mainly what we want from you outside of the ring."

"I'm listening," she said with some caution in her voice.

"As I said before, we have ambitious plans for you. Last time we changed your character, I think you did an amazing job as Commissioner Martinez, and I made no secret of the fact I thought it was a shame Vince called time on it. But what that run taught me is that you're very versatile; you can adapt to whatever we give you. This time, we're not putting you in a suit and having you run Raw with an iron fist. This time, you're going to be a real nasty bitch. You're going to be mean. You're going to be a bully. You're going to terrorise people for no other reason than you like doing it. And as for how the audience react to that; by hating you? You're not going to care in the least because you're going to hate them right back."

"Oh, man," Bayley breathed, finding that a lot to take in.

Hunter barely paused, enjoying describing what he wanted them to bring to fruition. "Your new tagline is going to be 'I don't care anymore'. You feel like the fans weren't there for you when you brought the hugger back. They let you down. You feel Sasha Banks stabbed you in the back multiple times when she was supposed to be your friend. You reached breaking point, and came to the realisation that Bayley is the only one who cares about Bayley. No one cares about you, so you don't care about them."

"I don't care anymore," Bayley repeated. "I kind of like that. It fits, if I'm going to become some kind of lone wolf, attacking who I want, when I want and not caring if I'm booed for it."

"We're going get you a couple of new shirt designs with the tagline on them, along with a remake of your old logo. This time there will be no ponytail on it and it won't be smiling and hugging, it will have sunglasses on and it will be looking angry."

Bayley had to giggle. "That sounds really cool to me!"

"We've also licensed a theme song for you," Hunter went on. "It came to me when we were discussing the tagline, and we decided to go with 'I don't care anymore.'"

"You've got me the Phil Collins song?" Bayley guessed. "It was the first thing I thought of when you said it. Seth has a guilty pleasure for eighties music," she explained.

Hunter chuckled. "I'll have to remember that. It's always good have something you can hold over someone when you need a favour." Bayley giggled as he continued, answering her previous question. "Anyway, yes, that's the song we've got for you. Needless to say, it's an edited version to make it more fitting as entrance music. You'll debut that next week, after you've delivered the line for the first time on the show tonight."

"Okay, sounds good," she agreed easily.

Hunter leaned back in his chair. Something about his demeanour told Bayley he thought she wasn't going to like the next thing he had to say. Since they knew each other so well, she had to assume he was correct.

"There's another aspect of your work outside of the ring that we need to talk about," he said, choosing his words carefully. "As I said, we want to make you the most hated heel on Raw. That's a much easier thing to say than to do, but what would help a lot is if you maintained character at all times. I know that's a tall order," he added as he saw Bayley's mouth fall open slightly.

"You're saying… I mean, I'm happy to give it a try," she stuttered uneasily.

"I was thinking that for a start you might go onto your Twitter and Instagram and unfollow everyone," Hunter suggested.

"Alright," Bayley agreed, wondering if she would have been better to have never said anything about turning heel to start with.

"And when you go to meet and greets and things like that, I want you to keep character there, too. Obviously I'm not saying be rude or obnoxious to fans; after all they are our consumers and they will have waited in line for hours to see you. The key is to keep character without going as far as offending people. Honestly, while I know it sounds daunting right now, I think you'll find yourself enjoying it when you've gotten used to it."

If I get used to it, Bayley thought, saying nothing. After a moment, she realised that the emphasis was on her to speak. "Got it," she confirmed. "I'd be lying if I said I felt comfortable with what you're asking, but I understand why you're asking me to do it and I'll do my best."

"Good," Hunter said, appearing satisfied with that commitment. "As you know, you're scheduled for one of our Cricket Wireless meet and greets next week. That will be your first test as far as this is concerned, so maybe after you've done that we can get together and talk about how it went, if you'd find that beneficial?"

"Yeah, maybe," Bayley said aloud as she considered the offer. "Thanks, Hunter. I really do appreciate you always doing your best for me, and for everyone else in the locker room."

"My pleasure," he said simply.

Within minutes, the meeting was over, leaving Bayley to turn her attention to the upcoming Raw show, where the audience were going to get their first experience of the new Bayley - the Bayley who didn't care anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

_Monday Night Raw – July 2nd 2018_

Kurt Angle had just finished a rather heated conversation with Jinder Mahal regarding a match that the former WWE Champion was demanding. As Mahal walked out of the shot to the right, Angle breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head. Beside him, Constable Corbin seemed to be amused by the unpleasant time the general manager was having in trying to keep order.

Suddenly, Kurt's expression changed to one of surprise as he looked to his left. Someone else was approaching.

"What is it, Kurt? I'm really not in the mood," a familiar female voice said.

Bayley walked into the shot. There was an audible reaction of surprise at her appearance from the fans watching on the big screen in the arena. There was no ponytail, and there were no bright colours to be seen anywhere. She was wearing her hair down and had a leather jacket on, open to reveal a grey t-shirt underneath. A pair of sunglasses were perched on her head. Corbin definitely seemed to like what he saw.

"Uh, Bayley," Kurt faltered, taken aback by her change in appearance.

"Yes, that's my name," she snapped impatiently. "I was told you wanted to see me, so what do you want?"

Kurt's eyes widened in surprise at her newly-abrupt manner, but he rolled with it. "What I wanted was to tell you I'm not happy with what you did to Sasha Banks last week after your match. It was an unprovoked attack, and no matter what frustrations you have, you went way too far. You're better than that, Bayley, which is why I've decided to give you a chance to work out your differences with Sasha. You're going to team up together tonight to take on Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan of The Riott Squad in tag team action."

"You really don't want to do that," Bayley said, making it perfectly clear with her tone that she was delivering a warning.

"Yeah, we really do," Corbin assured her before Angle could reconsider, seeming like he approved of her newfound aggression and wanted to see where it would lead.

"Go and get changed for your match," Angle instructed her, taking charge once more.

"Fine," Bayley huffed. She pointed a gloved finger at Kurt. "But what happens tonight? That's on you."

"What's gotten into her?" Kurt asked Baron after Bayley turned and walked out of the shot.

* * *

The Riott Squad were first to enter for their tag team match against Sasha Banks and Bayley. As they made their way to the ring, they were not the focus of discussion at the commentary table. All the talk was about the other team, and whether the former best friends would be able to get back on the same page.

Sasha's music began to play and Cole gave his usual cringe-worthy introduction as she walked out onto the stage.

"Guys, Sasha doesn't look happy at all," Coach pointed out. "And it's not hard to see why after what happened last week. She was the victim of a savage beat down, the likes of which we've never seen from Bayley before."

"Sasha should have thought about that before and reconsidered her own actions," Graves said. "Time after time, she stabbed Bayley in the back. There's only so far you can push a person before they snap. Last week, I think Bayley snapped."

"With that being said, it seems an odd decision by Kurt Angle and Constable Corbin to have Sasha and Bayley team up again," Cole said. "Surely they're not going to be able to function anything like as cohesively as The Riott Squad?"

"We're about to find out," Coach said. Sasha had just entered the ring, going through her usual entrance routine, but doing so without a great deal of enthusiasm. The Riott Squad eyed their prey from outside the ring.

Bayley's usual music began to play, drawing something of a cheer from the crowd, interest in her revived by what people had seen the previous week. They got their first surprise when she walked out onto the stage. There was still no ponytail, and there was no brightly-coloured ring attire. Instead, she was clad in black leather.

"Wow, this is a different-looking Bayley," Cole said.

"And look at her face," Graves added.

Bayley was glaring at Sasha as sauntered down the ramp, totally ignoring the inflatable tube men that went up behind her, and also the children on either side of the aisle who had been hoping for a hug.

When she reached the ring, Bayley unceremoniously rolled under the bottom rope. Sasha was standing ready and waiting, and started angrily saying something to confront her ex-friend about her actions.

To everyone's shock, Bayley wasted no time on words. She took Banks by surprise, going after her with right hands.

"Woah! They're fighting already!" Cole cried, over the top of another cheer from the fans.

"Bayley told Angle not to send her out here," Graves reminded everyone. "Maybe he should have listened to her."

The element of surprise had allowed Bayley to get the upper hand in the exchange of punches, forcing Sasha back into the corner.

Fighting for all she was worth, Sasha was able to turn the tables and spin Bayley around, trapping her in the corner, both women still doing everything they could to hammer away at each other.

"This is chaotic!" Cole cried. "These two women are supposed to be partners here, but they're trying to tear each other apart!"

Sasha dragged Bayley out of the corner and attempted to whip her across the ring to the opposite corner. Bayley reversed and sent Banks flying face first into the middle turnbuckle, the savage whiplash effect taking Sasha out.

"Look at Bayley now, going for Sasha like a woman possessed!"

Bayley was straddling her foe, pounding away with frantic rights and lefts. Outside the ring, Ruby Riott was shown leading her teammates away from ringside, smiling in approval at what Bayley was doing.

"The Riott Squad are taking off," Graves said. "They're not bothered about the match; they're perfectly happy with Banks being destroyed."

In the ring, Bayley had picked Sasha up in order to send her crashing back to the mat with a nasty lifting spinebuster. The fans groaned at the impact from the powerful move that they had never seen Bayley use before.

Even that wasn't enough for Bayley. She stepped through the ropes and climbed up to the top turnbuckle.

"What's Bayley doing now? Hasn't she done enough damage?" Coach demanded.

"No, she hasn't," Graves said.

Bayley launched herself into the air, crashing down onto Sasha's stomach with a picture perfect elbow drop.

Sasha writhed around, holding her stomach in pain, but still Bayley wasn't done. Wild-eyed, she dragged Banks up again and got her in position for a powerbomb.

"Bayley's going to... Yes, a powerbomb to Sasha Banks," Cole said. "A sitout powerbomb at that. That'll really do damage to your insides."

"Come on, Bayley, that's enough," Coach urged, with Sasha now lying motionless on the canvas.

It appeared that Bayley agreed. Standing up, she brushed her messed up hair back behind her head, glaring down at Banks. For the first time, there was some booing coming her way. Raising her head slowly, she shifted her glare to the fans.

"What is going on in that young woman's mind?" Cole wondered. "This is all so out of character for Bayley."

After spending a moment glaring at the fans, her eyes almost glazed over, Bayley snapped again. She rushed out of the ring, crouched down and lifted up the apron to fetch something. When she stood back up, she was holding a kendo stick.

"Oh my," Coach said quietly.

The fans cheered again as Bayley studied the kendo stick carefully. A lot of people realised the significance of her choice of weapon. It had been a kendo stick match against Alexa Bliss that had really been the death of the second incarnation of the hugger, as she had been made to look incredibly weak by her refusal to use the weapon. Now, there seemed to be no such reluctance.

"Bayley heading back into the ring now, kendo stick in hand," Cole said. "We need someone out here to stop this because it's getting way out of hand."

Showing no hesitancy or remorse, Bayley began wearing Sasha out with the kendo stick, smashing it over her stomach and back as she rolled around on the canvas, screaming in pain. Some more boos came from the fans as the message sunk in that they were watching a heel beat down a face. Only when the kendo stick broke across Sasha's back did Bayley stop her assault, slowly raising the half of the stick that she was still holding in the air.

"Bayley is proud of herself, but I don't know why," Coach said. "There's nothing to be proud of in what we've just seen. Sasha Banks has to be seriously hurt after the assault she's just been subjected to."

No music played as Bayley left the ring. It was plainly obvious that her theme was no longer appropriate. She walked up the entrance ramp and noticed the now-deflated tube men on the floor near the stage. Raising the broken kendo stick in the air once more, she plunged it like a sword into the body of a yellow tube man. It was a powerfully symbolic moment.

"I think the old Bayley is dead," Graves commented.

The shot lingered on the 'murdered' tube man with the stick poking out of it before Raw went to commercial.

* * *

After the break, Bayley was shown walking away from Gorilla backstage, looking pleased with herself.

"Bayley! Bayley!" Renee Young called out, hurrying up to the former Women's Champion.

"What?" Bayley asked impatiently, as if stopping for the interviewer was a massive inconvenience.

"I have to ask, why did you just attack Sasha Banks like that? Why are you dressed so differently? And why are you apparently turning your back on your fans?"

"Why have I turned my back on my fans?" Bayley hissed. "My fans? What fans? Let me tell you something, Renee. When I was the Raw commissioner, all I ever heard was fans telling me, 'We want Bayley back. We want the hugger back.'" She had mocked the fans by talking like an idiot. "So when I was stabbed in the back and forced out of office, I decided to give them what they wanted. I brought the hugger back."

Bayley paused for a second and her expression hardened even more. "And what happened, Renee? No one had my back, that's what happened. No one cared. I spent the worst year of my career trying to satisfy those idiots, and trying to be 'best friends' with Sasha Banks."

"And you think Sasha turned her back on you, too?" Renee guessed.

"I don't think she did, she did. It's a statement of fact. She did it several times, as you well know. And there was I, gullible little Bayley, willing to forgive her and try and see the best in people, like always. But now I've realised that the only person who has ever really looked out for my best interests is me, so that's how it's going to be from now on because when it comes to Sasha, when it comes to any of the other women in the locker room, or when it comes to my so-called fans? I don't care anymore."

The final three words were spat at Renee, who looked shocked and disappointed by Bayley's change in attitude as she walked out of the shot.

* * *

Later that night, after Raw was off air, rumours began appearing on most of the bigger dirt sheet websites about WWE launching a new brand which would be exclusive to the women's division. The rumours themselves were not new, but this time the articles claimed to have confirmation from sources within WWE.

"Have you seen these rumours about a new women's only brand?" Bayley asked Seth, looking up from her phone, where she had just finished reading one of the articles about it.

Seth was lying next to her on the bed in their hotel room. "They're talking about that again?" he asked without a huge amount of interest. Rumours were not something he paid much attention to.

"They're saying they have confirmation from sources within WWE, and the new brand could be launching after Summerslam."

Seth's eyebrows raised. "Then maybe there is something in it. If there is, we'll be finding out soon."


	4. Chapter 4

By the time the next Raw episode came around, there had been confirmation from WWE that the new female only brand was indeed coming to fruition. In a short post on the company's website, the announcement had been made that the show, named Women's Evolution, would be debuting the week after Summerslam.

With that in mind, Bayley was surprised that the announcement hadn't been made a little sooner. While she considered it a good thing that the women of Raw and Smackdown were going to be united on one roster and given their own show, she did have a major concern. What if she was put on a different travel schedule to Seth? That would mean they would see a lot less of each other, something she would not be happy about at all.

"Let's get some kind of clue what all this is about then, shall we?" Sasha Banks said, walking beside Bayley. While they had become enemies on-screen, they were still best friends off it. They had spent the past half an hour talking about the possible positives and negatives that could result from the new direction their careers were heading in with this new brand. They, along with the rest of the women from both Raw and Smackdown, who were all in attendance, had been summoned to a conference room to see Hunter Helmsley.

"Hopefully most of our concerns will be unfounded," Bayley replied. "You know what I think is odd, too?"

"What?" Sasha asked.

"It's Hunter we've got to see, not Vince. What do you suppose that's about?"

"Hmm," Sasha said thoughtfully. "I did see rumours that Hunter would be given control of the new brand. Maybe it's true? I know I'm not going to be complaining if it is."

"I hear that," Bayley said emphatically.

They were among the last of the women to enter the large conference room. Hunter was standing at the front of the assembled group, with a projector screen pulled down from the ceiling. It currently displayed only a WWE logo.

Naomi and Carmella were the last two women to walk into the room. Hunter confirmed that everyone was in attendance, then asked for the door to be closed. Once that was done, he brought the meeting to order.

"Okay, everyone, you know by now why you're here. WWE will soon be launching a new brand, exclusive to you guys, the women of the main roster. We've decided to call it Women's Evolution."

With a click on the mouse pad of the laptop that was connected to the projector, Hunter brought up a promotional image for the new show. It featured all of the women currently in the room, along with the name of the new brand. Bayley also saw that it also mentioned the show airing on Monday nights. That was the first surprise.

"As you can see, the show will air Monday nights," Hunter explained. "It will run for an hour, and will take place before Raw, with Raw itself switching to two hours."

"Isn't that basically just keeping Raw the same but rebranding the first hour?" Alexa Bliss asked, sounding confused.

"On the face of it, I guess it could seem like that right now," Hunter admitted. "But the reality is that Women's Evolution will have nothing to do with Raw, other than sharing an arena. Backstage, Women's Evolution will have its own writers, its own production team, its own staff, and of course you guys, the wrestlers. Some of you may be wondering why I'm the one standing here presenting this to you instead of Vince. The answer is that I have been given the job of managing and producing Women's Evolution, along with my role in NXT."

Bayley exchanged a look with Sasha that said, 'There you go.' They had been spot on with their guesswork.

"So, what this means is everyone in this room is going to build this brand," Hunter went on. "We're going to build it together, and we're going to make it WWE's best show. Frankly, I already think the women's action has been the highlight of the main roster for some time, so I jumped at the opportunity to work with you all."

"Are we getting a new championship?" Becky Lynch asked.

Bayley nodded her appreciation of the question, since she had just been wondering the same thing. If the existing divisions were to be merged under a new brand, it was obvious that the current Raw and Smackdown Women's Championships were not going to be applicable.

"You certainly are," Hunter said. He clicked the mouse pad again and a picture of a title belt very similar to the current Raw Women's Championship appeared on the screen. "And here it is, the WWE Women's Championship."

There were mutterings of approval from around the room, which Bayley went along with. She had always preferred the red of the Raw belt to the blue of the Smackdown one.

"So what about the people who are currently champions?" Carmella asked. Since she was the Smackdown Women's Champion, it wasn't hard to see why she was concerned by what she was hearing. Alexa was probably feeling the same way.

"Whoever is in the two women's title matches at Summerslam will be competing for the honour of being the final Raw and Smackdown Women's Champions. The belts will be retired that night, and we'll begin Women's Evolution with a tournament to crown our new WWE Women's Champion."

Carmella didn't look thrilled about the news. Bayley felt sympathy for her friend, but it was what it was.

"We're also going to have these," Hunter said. With another click, he brought up an image of a pair of title belts.

"Ohh, tag titles," Bayley said to Sasha as chatter filled the room. "Not that we're likely to go for them anyway."

"Yeah, we'll be working with each other for a while," Sasha said.

"Alright, quiet, please," Hunter said loudly. Once he had everyone's attention again, he continued. "As I said, Women's Evolution will take place before Raw. You will also be on the same schedule as Raw for live events. So, those of you who are on Smackdown currently, it's unfortunate, but you'll be leaving to come over to Raw effective the night after Summerslam."

There were more murmurs around the room. Personally, Bayley felt quite happy about that aspect of the new show. She had friends on Smackdown, and would now get to work with them again.

Hunter went on for a few further minutes, explaining that a brand new team of writers, a team that he had high hopes for, had been brought in by WWE and were starting work on angles for Women's Evolution as they spoke. He ended by reiterating that it was on every person in the room to make the new brand as success. "I really think that if we all work our asses off and stick together as a team, we can make this the best wrestling show on the market," he asserted.

"You're right," Natalya said. "And it's not just we can; we will!"

Cheers of agreement went up in response. Bayley joined in, smiling happily. She really believed it was true, and even better, she had to assume that with the heel turn she had just taken, she would be in the picture for the new Women's Championship.

Hunter dismissed everyone, and the women began to scatter in different directions. Bayley and Sasha went back to the locker room, talking about what they had just heard.

The conversation continued while Bayley changed into her clothes for the speaking segment that she had to do on Raw. Much like the previous week, she put on boots, jeans, a t-shirt and her leather jacket. She stuffed her leather gloves into a pocket, not needing them yet.

"Here you go," Sasha said, handing Bayley her sunglasses.

"Thanks." Bayley perched the glasses on her head, and the look was complete. The only difference from the week before was the t-shirt, which this time was chosen from her new line of merchandise. It was a plain grey one with 'I don't care anymore!' written on the front in angry-looking black capital lettering, along with the new angry-looking Bayley logo.

"You really look like that bitch," Sasha said in admiration.

Bayley giggled. "Well, that's what I'm going for. I'm looking forward to the segment later. It's a shame you're not on the show, but the time will come when you confront me."

Sasha had found out that she would not be appearing on Raw this week as her character had been written as being at home nursing her injuries from the serious ass kicking she had taken the previous week. In Sasha's absence, Bayley would go to the ring and cut a promo, reiterating what she had said to Renee Young the previous week. She would be interrupted by Kurt Angle, who would make a match between Bayley and Sasha for Extreme Rules, promising that Banks would be back and ready to go by then.

"I'm going to go tell Seth about the new show," Bayley announced. "He'll be delighted to hear we're staying on the same travel schedule."

"I'm sure he will," Sasha said with a little laugh.

With that, Bayley headed off to the men's locker room. She bumped into Roman along the way, and asked him to go into the room and fetch Seth for her.

"Your boss is outside," Roman took pleasure in telling Seth, in front of everyone. It was a running joke that Seth was under the thumb in his relationship with Bayley.

"Then I'd better hurry," Seth said, rolling his eyes as he played along with the joke. He walked across the locker room and out of the door.

"Hey," Bayley greeted him with a loving smile.

"What's up, angel?" he asked, leaning down to give her a soft kiss on the lips. "Mmm, you look so sexy," he added, kissing her a second time.

"So do you, baby," she replied, savouring the taste of him on her lips. "Sadly, we're going to have to wait until later for sex."

Just hearing her say the word made Seth want it so much more. "I'm sure we could find a room somewhere."

"No!" Bayley said with a surprised laugh. "I'll make you a deal, though. I'll dress like this for you tonight, if that's what you want?"

"That's a deal I'd have to be crazy to turn down," he said with lust in his tone.

Bayley smiled broadly at him. "Anyway, what I came to tell you about was the new show, not that you're probably all that interested in hearing about it now."

"No, I am interested," he assured her, forcing himself to try and keep his desires under control for now. "What did Hunter tell you about it?"

"Well, the best piece of news is that it's being filmed Monday nights, and us women will still be on the same travel schedule as Raw."

"So nothing has to change for us," Seth said happily. "That's amazing news."

Bayley nodded. "It really is. I was really nervous about it when we went in there, so it was such a relief when Hunter said that. The show is called Women's Evolution, and it's starting after Summerslam. And guess what else? We're also getting women's tag team belts!"

"About time," Seth said. "Better late than never, though. Kind of a shame you've just become this lone wolf type of character; probably means you won't be in contention for them."

"Nope," Bayley admitted with a shrug. "But hopefully I might get the new Women's Championship."

"I'm sure you will," Seth said without doubt. "If I was doing the booking, I'd have you beat Sasha a couple of times, at Extreme Rules and at Summerslam, then I'd have you go for the belt after that."

"I think you might be a little bit biased, I'm just saying," Bayley giggled.

"Maybe," Seth conceded with a big smile on his face.


	5. Chapter 5

After a month, Bayley was starting to get used to playing her new character. Initially, despite the fact that she had been the one to request a heel turn in the hope that it would revitalise her career, she had felt some reluctance to act out turning her back on her fans, especially the kids. Interacting with them had always been her favourite part of the job.

Overall, though, she had no doubt that the turn had been the right career move. Since the transition from the hugger she was undefeated, and had issued Sasha Banks with one hell of an ass kicking at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view. The match had been very well received by the audience, who were impressed with the new level of intensity and violence from Bayley – the kind of thing that had never been seen from her before.

If there was one problem so far it was that it was proving difficult to actually get much heat on the new Bayley. People seemed to like seeing her do so well, and most times when she entered arenas these days she would get a bigger pop than she had been getting when she was a face. Rome wasn't built in a day, though, as Hunter was fond of saying. The boss had already mentioned that he had plans for her character to commit more despicable acts that he felt sure would get heat on her.

The only slightly unfortunate thing about her heel turn was the timing of it. It had happened right before WWE had announced their plans for the new Women's Evolution brand. Since that announcement, it had felt like the Raw and Smackdown women's divisions were playing something of a waiting game until it all began again for them on their own show. There were only a couple of weeks until Summerslam, where Bayley would be going over Sasha again, albeit in a more closely-fought contest.

Meanwhile, off-screen, Bayley was getting into the groove of how her new character interacted with the fans when she attended meet and greet sessions. Even as a heel, as with any superstar, fans still flocked to any appearance she made. There were strict guidelines from WWE as to what was acceptable for heels to say or do when meeting fans so as to maintain a balance between keeping character and not actively alienating people who were ultimately WWE's consumers. It was something that Bayley had sought advice on from Seth. With his help, and a couple of sessions under her belt for experience, she now felt like she was close to being was on point with it.

After the last appearance she had done, she had described some of what had happened to Seth. His advice had been that she was doing well, but maybe she could take things up another notch with certain fans. It would be up to her to judge who the people were who could take things the right way, but if she pulled it off, she would get credit for some top quality heel work. It was now time to put his suggestion into practice.

Bayley had just arrived at a toy store where she would be meeting a lucky group of two hundred fans who had managed to get in line outside early enough to receive a wristband for the event, which was intended to promote the release of the new Bayley Funko Pop figure, which reflected her new persona.

Walking into the store from the staff entrance at the rear, Bayley supressed a smile by sipping from the cup of coffee that she had picked up from a Starbucks on the way over. She was dressed in the manner people were now accustomed to seeing from her character when she wasn't wrestling: boots, jeans, one of her 'I don't care anymore' shirt under an open leather jacket and leather gloves, with a pair of sunglasses perched on her head. She had seen that the fans had already been admitted and had formed a line, winding around the place and out of the door into the street. No matter the orientation of her character, seeing the fans always made her feel so happy inside.

At the front of the line was a table with a few sharpie pens on it and some eight by ten glossy promotional pictures for her to sign for those fans who hadn't brought an item of their own for signature. At one end of the table, several of the new Funkos were stacked so that they would be in the background of the fan's photographs.

As she approached, Bayley greeted the few staff members who were standing around waiting for her, as well as the couple of well-built men in charge of security. A young woman on the staff was apparently going to be the one to take photos for the fans using their cell phones.

Back in the days when she had been the hugger, Bayley would have chosen not to sit behind the table if possible, knowing that her fans loved to get hugs and that the pictures people got were a lot better when they didn't have to lean over a table to pose with her. Now, though, her character didn't care anymore, so she sat down behind the table and took another drink from her cup. "Alright, I'm ready," she announced.

The first ten or fifteen people to come forward were routine meets. She greeted them with a smile and a handshake if they offered one. High fives or hugs were refused. The new Bayley no longer had interest in that kind of thing. A few words were exchanged before she signed their item of choice and posed for a picture with them.

A guy in his early twenties stepped forward. I addition to the smile of amusement on his face, Bayley saw that he was carrying a Sasha Banks shirt. There was a guy of a similar age now at the front of the line, wearing a different Sasha shirt. They were obviously friends, and had thought it would be amusing to come and meet Banks's bitter on-screen enemy with her merch.

"Hi, Bayley," guy number one said as he approached the table.

"Hello," she replied, affecting indifference.

"Can you sign this please?" he asked, putting the Sasha shirt on the table in front of her.

"Nope," she replied, stone-faced.

"What?" he asked, equally surprised and amused that she was obviously going to keep character.

"I'm not signing it," she told him defiantly as she scribbled her signature on one of the glossy promos instead. "Here, take this and get out of here." She held the picture out to the guy, who had burst out laughing. Bayley was glad that she had correctly judged him as being someone who would be good for a real in-character interaction. To add a final touch to it, she picked the Sasha shirt up off the table and threw it in the direction that the fans had to head in when they left. "And take that piece of crap with you," she told him.

The guy laughed even harder, loving the special moment he was getting. "Alright, but what about my picture?"

"Fine, you can have a picture." Bayley posed with a deliberately salty expression on her face, in the knowledge that she was giving him a great story to tell his friends later.

"Thanks, Bay, you're awesome," he said as his phone was handed back to him.

"I know," she snapped as he departed, laughing yet again.

Now it was his friend's turn to come forward. He, too, was already laughing, along with a fair few people in the line who had been paying attention to what had just happened.

"Hey, Bayley," he said as he approached.

Without replying, she gave the Sasha shirt he was wearing a sour look.

"I was hoping you'd sign this shirt for me," he said, unable not to grin like an idiot in the process.

"Alright, turn around," Bayley told him.

"Wait, really?" he laughed.

"Turn around," she instructed, picking up a gold sharpie.

The fan turned his back on Bayley as she stood up, making like she was going to sign it. However, she had something different in mind. Without giving him time to react, she grabbed hold of the bottom of shirt and pulled it up hard, lifting it clean off him. The fans in line cheered loudly.

"What the hell?" the guy asked through his laughter as he turned around to face her, naked from the waist up.

"You want me to sign this piece of crap?" she asked angrily. "Fine, I'll sign it." With that, she tore the front of the shirt in half, completely ruining it, then signed it with gold sharpie. "There you go, signed."

"You're such a badass," the guy said, still laughing like an idiot. It was a relief to Bayley, who had been advised to pull that stunt by Seth and assured that it would be fine so long as she did it with the right person. He had been correct.

"I'm going to hold it up for our picture," the fan announced.

"If that's what you want to do," she said coldly, sitting back down behind the table.

The fan leaned across the table, holding the torn up shirt in such a way that the signature on it would be visible in the photo, as well as the fact the shirt had been torn. Rather than simply posing, he shouted, "Yeah!" while the picture was taken. For her part, Bayley affected the most unimpressed expression she could muster.

Content not to try and put the remains of the shirt back on, the fan gave Bayley one of the biggest smiles she had ever received from a fan. "That's some real heel work! Thanks, Bayley! We need more like you!"

Bayley appreciated the praise so much that she simply had to acknowledge it. She was, however, able to limit herself to just a nod.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Bayley was back in the car that had taken her to the toy store. When she turned on her phone, she immediately received a text message that had been sent while it was off.

Hunter Helmsley: I saw a video of you taking that fan's Sasha shirt off and tearing it up. Excellent work keeping character. I trust you to be very selective with the kind of person you do that sort of thing with. So long as there are no stories of kids crying, you have my backing.

Smiling happily, Bayley typed out a quick reply.

Thanks, Hunter. I already had that guy's friend at the table first, also with Sasha merch. It was obvious they came to try and get a reaction, so I gave them one. I'll be careful where and when I keep character to that extent.

"This is so much fun," she muttered to herself as she pressed send.

"Sorry?" the driver asked from the front of the car.

"Oh, nothing," Bayley replied, looking up and giving him a smile with the aid of the rear-view mirror. "I'm just having a great time with my job right now."

The driver returned the smile with a genuine one of his own. "Well, that's great. I hope it continues."


	6. Chapter 6

On the rare occasion that Seth and Bayley got some time at home, they liked to show their faces at the coffee shop they owned, named Bean and Gone. Although they employed a manager to run the shop for them from day to day, and she did so very effectively, the owners still liked to take a personal interest when they could.

Bean and Gone had been Seth and Bayley's second renovation project, after they had bought a house and taken it from a near-derelict ruin into their ideal home, doing most of the work themselves. It had been a lot of long, hard graft, but they had very much enjoyed the experience of building their dream together.

As Seth pulled their car into the driveway, the memories of the renovation project were on Bayley's mind. "Seth?" she asked slowly.

"What, angel?" he asked, turning to look at her after killing the engine.

"I'm just thinking about when we worked on the house, and then Bean and Gone. You really got me into DIY and taught me so much. I miss it. Do you think we could take on something else?"

"Hmmm," Seth said thoughtfully. "Why don't we talk about it inside? You know what's ironic? We've spent all afternoon working in a coffee shop and I didn't drink a single coffee. I'm dying for one."

"You know you're never going to catch me turning down coffee," Bayley replied with a smile as she got out of the car. She was a shameless addict.

"That's for sure," Seth agreed, also climbing out of the car. "But then, coffee is life."

Bayley giggled. "A motto anyone could live by."

They entered the house and walked through to the kitchen where Bayley got the coffee machine going. Seth walked up behind her, put two cups on the counter, then slipped his arms around her waist. It was something he often did, and they both liked it a lot.

"Mmm," Bayley purred contentedly, nestling against him.

"So, what kind of project were you thinking of?" Seth asked. "I'd definitely like to work on something else with you. It really made me happy the way you got into it all. You took to it like a natural, much more than I thought you would."

"Thank you, baby," she said sweetly. "Honestly, I loved working on this place so much, I'd love to do it all over again with another house."

"Another house?" Seth repeated with some surprise. "Surely you don't mean you want to sell this place? This is our home, Bay."

Bayley wriggled around to face him and looked earnestly into his eyes. "Of course I don't mean that. I'd never want to leave here, you know that. I'm talking about buying another house and restoring it. I remember you telling me people make good money buying places, fixing them up and selling them. We could get into that?"

"That's a very interesting idea," Seth said with smile. "Yes, there are people who do that for a living. They buy places on the cheap at auction, like we did, then they sell them for huge profits after renovation. It could be both a business venture and a hobby for us." His excitement at the prospect was obvious.

"That sounds great to me," Bayley said, giving him a little peck on the lips. "I'm imagining us now having a business doing this. It would be a really good retirement plan for us."

Seth laughed. "I'm not planning on retiring any time soon."

"I know you're not. Neither am I. But I'm serious, this could be a business for us after we're done wrestling. We really could start a company. It's something we both like doing, and we're good at it. Well, you are. But I'll get there."

"Definitely," he agreed, getting more serious about the idea. "It's something we should put some thought into. Ignore me laughing, I do think it's a very good idea."

"Yay!" Bayley squeaked in delight, melting Seth's heart as she so often did. "I love you, Seth."

"I love you too, angel." Seth gave her a kiss, then she turned around to get on with making the coffee.

While she worked on fixing the drinks, she posed a question. "What do you think we could call our company?"

"Now that's a tough one," Seth said. Taking a couple of steps back, he sat down at the kitchen island, still facing her. "I'm really not good with things like that. Creativity isn't my strong point. I'm just glad Bean and Gone was already named when we bought it. I would certainly never have thought of it."

Bayley took a moment to consider her own question as she finished making the coffees. "I think I have a good one," she announced as she handed Seth a cup.

"Thanks, babe. Go on."

"What about Bayllins Property Developers?" She had used the name that WWE's fans had given them once their relationship had gone public.

Seth laughed loudly. "Yes! That's really good! We should look into registering the trademark. Safe to say no one has it."

Bayley sipped her piping hot coffee. Her eyes widened in excitement as another idea came to her. "We could get a van with the name on the side!"

"And we could have a logo on the side as well. Maybe little Seth and Bayley cartoon figures holding drills or trowels or something."

"Oh my God, Seth," Bayley squealed. She put her cup down and walked over to him. When she got there, she embraced him. "Please can we make this a reality? I am totally serious about wanting to us to do this."

"Me too," he replied sincerely, looking up at her from his sitting position. "Tomorrow, I'll look into how you register a trademark and a company. The advantage we have is that we have enough money to buy a place at auction without needing a mortgage, which allows us to spend as long as we like on the renovation work without losing money on interest payments."

"That's a good point," she said, nodding thoughtfully. "I'm so glad you're knowledgeable about stuff like that. Could we maybe start looking for somewhere to bid on soon?"

"Yeah, I don't see why not," Seth said happily. "And while we're at it, we can look into buying a van and getting our branding put onto it."

"I'm so excited right now!" Bayley exclaimed, bouncing up and down for want of something else to do with her energy.

While Seth laughed adoringly at her reaction, her phone started to ring in her pocket.

"Who's that?" she asked in mild annoyance at the interruption in their conversation. She took the phone out of her pocket and looked at the name on the screen. "It's Alexa," she reported, finding it strange. While the two women were friends, it wasn't to the extent where they would call each other on days off.

"I'll leave you to it," Seth said, taking his coffee cup and heading for the living room.

Meanwhile, Bayley sat down at the island in the seat he had vacated and answered the call. "Hey, Lexi. How are you?"

"I'm great, Bay. How about you?" came the cheerful response.

"Yeah, very good. Seth and I had a nice afternoon working at our coffee shop. We just got home."

"That's awesome," Alexa said warmly. "Hey, the reason I called is I have some news. I can't say how I found out, but I know some of the teams that are going to be in the new tag team division."

That got Bayley's attention. Alexa was referring the division on the new Women's Evolution brand that was now only a few days away from getting started. Summerslam was on the coming Sunday, where Bayley would be going over Sasha Banks in a singles match. On the following Monday, the first episode of Women's Evolution was going to air before Raw. All of the women were very much looking forward to their fresh start. While she was extremely interested in who the new teams were going to be, she wasn't quite sure why Alexa had chosen to call her about it. "Hype!" she exclaimed. "Tell me more!"

"Well, the team you're going to be most interesting in is Alexa Bliss and Bayley!"

"Wait, really?" Bayley squealed. "We're teaming?" Then the reality of it dawned on her, making her feel confused. "Hang on, why am I on a team? That's not really what my character is supposed to be about."

"I don't know. I guess Hunter will explain to you. But I heard that we're going to be one of the teams in contention for the belts. I'm up for it! I think we'll be a very good team. They've put the two heel characters from Raw who had heat together. If I had to guess, maybe the angle will be that we've formed an alliance over the fact that we both hate everyone else."

"I suppose they could work with that," Bayley said. "Sorry if I didn't sound enthusiastic. I am looking forward to teaming with you, it just seems a bit odd given what Hunter told me about my character. But hey, if we're going to be in the picture for the belts, that's plenty good enough for me. I wonder if we're going to have a name, or if we'll just be Alexa Bliss and Bayley?"

"I have no idea," Alexa admitted. "All I know is some of the pairings."

"Alright, tell me some more teams!" Bayley said excitedly.

"Sonya and Mandy was one," Alexa began, sounding like she was counting on her fingers. "Sasha and Ember. Charlotte and Becky. I'm sure no one will be surprised by that one. Nikki Cross and Ruby Riott."

"Oh my, I love that," Bayley interrupted.

"Yeah, that's a good one. Sarah and Liv, obviously. I think the only other one was Naomi and Nia."

"Nothing for Ronda or Carmella?" Bayley asked. "I guess that means they're going for the new Women's title."

"Asuka will be in there too," Alexa agreed. "Anyway, that's what I know. I had to call you as soon as I found out we're going to be a team. But remember, I'm not supposed to know yet, so don't say anything to anyone, and act surprised when you get told."

"Got it," Bayley confirmed. "Thanks for calling, Lexi. See you Sunday."

"Yeah, see you."

After ending the call, Bayley looked blankly at the phone for a second. "Didn't see that coming," she muttered to herself.

With that, she pocketed her phone and, forgetting about her cup of coffee, walked out of the kitchen and through to the living room. She found Seth relaxing on their usual couch (the other one at a right angle to it was only used by visitors) catching up on the sports news on TV.

"Everything okay?" he asked without turning around to look at her.

"Fine," Bayley replied sweetly. "Lexi found out some of the teams for the new women's tag team division." She leaned over the back of the couch and loosely wrapped her arms around his neck affectionately. "Surprisingly, I'm on one of them, with Lexi."

"That is a surprise," Seth said, half turning to look back at her. "I thought you'd be competing as a singles... Ow!" he moaned as Bayley nibbled at the delicate skin on the side of neck. "No biting!"

"Don't pretend you don't like it," she breathed into his ear, before pressing the lobe softly between her teeth, wanting him to feel it, but not to hurt him.

Making her squeal in delight and surprise, Seth leaned back, grabbed hold of her and roughly pulled her over the back of the couch. She ended up sitting in front of him. Before she could say anything, he covered her mouth with his hand. It was a fetish of hers – both for him to do it to her and for her to do it to him. "Now, that's what you get," he told her sternly.

"I'll be a good girl," she muffled into his palm, the words just about understandable.

"I know you will. I'm going to make sure of it."


	7. Chapter 7

There was real excitement in the air when Seth and Bayley arrived at the arena the night after Summerslam. New York's Barclays Center was going to host the debut episode of Women's Evolution.

Lasting an hour, the new show would happen before Raw, which would revert to its old two hour format. The announced changes had been received with overwhelming positivity by the fans. Bayley had seen a lot of people saying that they thought Women's Evolution had a shot at becoming the best of WWE's brands, if it was done well. That was certainly Hunter Helmsley's vision for it.

There were, however, questions still to be answered, and not just for the audience. Bayley and the rest of the roster had been told precious little themselves about the new show as yet. The list of tag teams that Alexa Bliss had somehow found out about hadn't even been formally announced. No one knew who the commentators were going to be. No one knew who the general manager was going to be, assuming there would be one. No one knew who the first Women's Champion was going to be. No one knew who the first Women's Tag Team Champions were going to be.

Expecting to receive answers to at least some of those questions, Bayley headed for the women's locker room after saying goodbye to Seth with a kiss. At least she was going into the new show with some momentum behind her, she thought. At Summerslam the previous night, she had been victorious over Sasha Banks for the second pay-per-view in succession. Presumably, that rivalry was now complete, with the start of Women's Evolution.

Dragging her travel case into the locker room, Bayley saw that she was among the first to arrive, as was most often the case. Sometimes, she was first of all. On this occasion, Sasha Banks was already in the room, along with Bayley's new tag team partner, Alexa Bliss. The two women were standing together, looking at something at Sasha's phone and laughing.

"Hey, guys," Bayley said pleasantly as she approached them. She always used a locker next to Sasha. It was a little surprising to see Sasha getting along so well with Alexa.

"Oh, here she is," Sasha said, laughing again.

"What are you laughing at?" Bayley enquired, feeling on the defensive. Clearly, for whatever reason, she was the subject of the laughter.

"Oh, nothing bad," Alexa clarified quickly, realising how they had come across.

"I was just telling Lexi a bit more about you since you're apparently going to be a team now. We got onto the subject of Bean and Gone, and I randomly decided to look it up and see what your reviews are like."

"And why is that funny?" Bayley demanded, even more defensively. People laughing at the business she had worked hard to build was not something she appreciated in the least.

"You have great scores," Sasha assured her. "We're not laughing at you or the shop. We're laughing at a comment someone left. Look." She held her phone out to Bayley, pointing out the particular comment in question.

Taking the phone, Bayley was happy to see that the reviewer had given Bean and Gone five out of five stars. So what was so funny? Initially puzzled, she read the comment out loud. "We enjoyed our visit to Bean and Gone. Will definitely go back again next time we're in the area. The coffee was some of the best we've ever had, and we both enjoyed a delicious cake to go with it. The best part was the manager who served us. She appears to be a Bond villain who runs a coffee shop in her spare time! You've never heard an accent like it! I asked her if she planned to take over the world, and she said one coffee shop at a time. Hilarious!"

All three women started laughing. Having visited the coffee shop with Seth and Bayley, Sasha was familiar with Elena D'Agostino, the manager Seth had hired to run the place in their absence. Elena was a very good manager, with plenty of experience in the industry, but she spoke English that was awkward at times, and had a very thick Italian accent. Bayley could definitely see the Bond villain comparison. It would be worth remembering for the next time she had a conversation with Elena.

"Brilliant, isn't it?" Sasha asked, a huge grin on her face.

"It really is," Bayley giggled. "I do hope Daga has seen it. I'll have to text her and get her to look if she hasn't already."

"I need to go to this coffee shop of yours," Alexa said. "Maybe I'll cosplay another Bond villain and we can fight it out."

"So long as you don't trash the place," Bayley said with another laugh.

"She practically is a Bond villain anyway," Sasha said, meaning Alexa. "I've just been getting the inside scoop on the new tag team division. Lexi here knows all the teams, somehow."

"Yeah, I know," Bayley said conspiratorially. "And we're one of them. Alexa Bliss and Bayley. I like it the more I think about it."

"Sasha and Ember is another good one," Alexa said.

"I'm looking forward to teaming with her, for sure," Sasha nodded. "I'm just wondering who's going to get the first run with the belts."

"No idea," Bayley said with a shrug.

They chatted away for fifteen minutes, while the locker room gradually filled with their colleagues on the newly-enlarged roster comprised of the former Raw and Smackdown women's divisions.

Sonya Deville entered the room and announced, "Guys, Hunter is outside, wanting to come and see us. Make yourselves presentable, at least as much as you can," she added with a laugh.

It took a couple of minutes for those who had been in the process of changing to get themselves sorted out, then Sonya went outside to fetch the boss.

"Hello, everyone. Excited for the show?" Hunter asked cheerfully as he walked in, finding them all sitting in front of their lockers, ready for him to address them. Rather than heading over to stand in the middle of the room, he lingered near the door as the women replied to confirm that they were indeed excited.

"Excellent," Hunter said. "Now, I have a fair few things to bring you up to speed with. I'd have liked to have done it sooner, but frankly we were still making last minute decisions and preparations." He began by running through which women would be competing as singles wrestlers and which of them would be assigned to tag teams. The new pairing were also announced.

Chatter filled the room while people struck up conversation with their new partners. Bayley remarked to Alexa about the fact that her information, from wherever she had gotten it, had been spot on. Alexa just grinned in response.

"Alright, quiet, please. We've got more to get through," Hunter called out. He was quickly granted the silence he had requested. "Now, that's the rosters sorted out. I'll be calling you to my office in groups over the course of the afternoon so that we can discuss what your first creative angles are going to be on the new brand. Before then, there are a couple of other announcements I'd like to make. Firstly, we needed a new commentary team. The only thing that made sense to me for an all-women's brand was to have an all-women's announce team. I'm going to bring them in now."

While Hunter opened the door and asked whoever was outside to come in, Bayley looked at Sasha and Alexa for clues as to who was about to enter the room. This time, Alexa was as nonplussed as everyone else.

There were several loud exclamations of delight as Renee Young and Trish Stratus walked into the locker room. "Renee and Trish are your new commentary team," Hunter announced.

"Oh my God, this is so fricking awesome!" Bayley exclaimed to Sasha.

The two commentators were given a moment to walk around the room, receiving congratulations from their friends and colleagues. Renee was the first one to come over to the Bayley, Sasha and Alexa's little group.

"I'm so excited for you, girl!" Sasha exclaimed.

"This is brilliant," Alexa added.

For her part, Bayley offered a hug which was gratefully accepted by Renee. "I'm so happy for you, Renee. You really deserve this chance. You'll do a wonderful job."

"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate all the positive words," Renee said, smiling at them all before moving on.

Trish came up to them next. "Surprise!" she said, spreading her arms theatrically.

"No shit," Sasha said with an excited laugh. "How did Hunter talk you into coming back on the road again?"

Trish accepted a brief hug from Bayley before answering. "Quite easily, when he told me about this new brand. I couldn't not be a part of it when they're getting behind women's wrestling this much. Besides, it's only one night a week on the road, plus pay-per-views."

"Well, I can't wait to have you calling my matches," Alexa said.

Sasha and Bayley voiced their agreement with that sentiment before Trish moved on to greet Ruby Riott and Nikki Cross, another of the new pairings for Women's Evolution.

Waiting patiently, Hunter didn't move on to his next and final announcement until Trish and Renee had exchanged a few words with everyone. "Okay," he said when the new commentary team walked over to join him. "There is one more position to be filled. Women's Evolution needed a general manager. We considered many names for the positon, but I'm delighted to announce that our first choice agreed to take it on. What I'm not going to do, though, is tell you who it is. You'll have to find out tonight during the show, the same as everyone else. Tonight's debut episode will kick off with all of you in the ring; a real celebration of how far we've brought women's wrestling so far. But remember, this is only the start!"

In agreement, a loud cheer went up from everyone in the room. After thanking them for their time and reminding them that he was going to start calling them to his office in groups shortly for further discussion, Hunter left the room.

"I'm so frustrated right now!" Bayley exclaimed to her two friends. "I want to know who the new GM is!"

"Don't we all?" Alexa replied.


	8. Chapter 8

_Women's Evolution – August 20th 2018_

When the first ever episode of Women's Evolution went live, the entire roster was standing in the ring. The crowd were cheering loudly, their enthusiasm for the new brand immediately noticeable. There were several close up shots of various women's faces, all looking delighted to be there. A chant of "Women's wrestling!" started to break out.

"This is incredible," Bayley said to Sonya Deville, who she happened to be standing closest to.

"So humbling," Sonya agreed.

By then, the chant was filling the arena, with almost everyone joining in. It was a really uplifting moment as wrestlers and fans alike got to celebrate the success of WWE's women over the past few years.

Jojo was standing in the ring, ready to make an announcement. She waited until the chant began to die down. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the general manager of Women's Evolution…"

The noise from the fans rose significantly in anticipation. There had been great speculation since the announcement of the new brand over who would be given the general manager's positon. Names ranging from Stephanie McMahon to AJ Lee had all been mentioned online as supposed contenders for the job.

"You can look, but you can't touch!"

A cheer greeted Nikki Bella's entrance music and video. It was, however, tinged with disappointment from those fans who had hoped that the rumours of AJ Lee's return were true. Carrying a microphone, Nikki walked out onto the stage with a dazzling smile on her face, dressed in a typically fashionable green dress that complimented her amazing figure perfectly. Green was the colour assigned to the Women's Evolution brand. Everything from the show's logo to the ring ropes were colour coordinated, as with WWE's other brands.

In the ring, the wrestlers happily applauded Nikki's introduction. The announcement had been as much of a surprise to them as to the rest of the audience, and they were excited to welcome back their popular colleague, and in some cases, friend.

"You didn't think this was all going to happen without your longest reining Divas Champion, did you?" Nikki asked from the stage, still smiling broadly. "Thank you for that warm welcome. I'm delighted to have accepted the position as Women's Evolution's general manager, and to everyone in that ring, I'm overwhelmingly proud of all of you for how far women's wrestling has progressed over the past few years, since what was called the Women's Revolution. We've had the revolution, now we're going to have the evolution!"

There was another cheer, followed by a repeat of the "Women's wrestling!" chant. There could be no doubt that the fans were fired up for the new show. The reaction definitely bode well for the future.

"Before I make my first announcements regarding the Women's Championship and the Women's Tag Team Championships," Nikki said, "I have to introduce you to your Women's Evolution commentary team. First, please welcome… Renee Young!"

A warm reaction greeted the former interviewer as she walked onto the stage, now with entrance music of her own. Renee waved to acknowledge the support, then walked over to Nikki to thank her for the introduction. The two women shared a peck on the cheek, then Renee made her way over to the commentary table at the side of the stage.

"And her commentary partner," Nikki announced, "WWE Hall of Famer, Trish Stratus!"

A much louder cheer greeted the intro to Trish's music, and some of the crowd started chanting "Yes!" Trish entered the arena to another ovation, exchanged a greeting and a peck on the cheek with Nikki, then went over to join Renee.

The general manager moved on to talking about the new Women's Championship, announcing a tournament that would result in the first champion being crowned at the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.

"And the best part of all? The final two superstars will face each other for the right to become the first holder of the new Women's Championship inside Hell in a Cell!" Nikki proclaimed to yet another ovation. Several of the women in the ring were shown with excited looks on their faces.

"But even that is not all," Nikki said excitedly. "We still have the Women's Tag Team Championships to talk about. Again, we need to crown initial champions, and that will happen in a tag team match at Hell in a Cell. But before we get that far, we need two contenders to compete in that match. Tonight, we're going to find out who those two teams will be! We will see two tag team matches here tonight, and the winners of those matches will be the two teams who advance to Hell in a Cell."

"What an event Hell in a Cell is already shaping up to be," Renee commented, now settled in at the commentary table.

"A new Women's Champion and new Women's Tag Team Champions," Trish confirmed. "What an honour it will be for the first holders of those titles."

"Ladies, all of you are eligible to enter," Nikki informed the wrestlers down in the ring. "All you have to do is find yourselves a partner. You'd better work fast, though, because the first match will take place next!"

"There you have it," Renee said as Nikki's music began to play. "You heard it from Nikki Bella, our general manager. Our first match on Women's Evolution will be a tag team contest, with the winners advancing to Hell in a Cell to compete for the Women's Tag Team Championships."

"Who are the teams going to be?" Trish asked. "I can't wait to see!"

* * *

The teams in the first match of the night had been Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, taking on Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. To the surprise of almost everyone, Sonya had pinned Charlotte clean after a vicious kick to the face. It was a huge statement from Deville, who had struggled to gain much momentum since her debut on the main roster almost a year earlier.

The final match of the show was the second of the two tag team matches. As with the first, the audience had no idea who the competitors were going to be. Before the first piece of entrance music played, Jojo made an announcement.

"The next contest, scheduled for one fall, is to determine a number one contender for the Women's Tag Team Championship."

Sasha Banks's music was first to play. She was welcomed with some enthusiasm by the crowd, her run against the new heel Bayley having helped in that regard.

"Sasha Banks," Renee announced, thankfully not mentioning Boss time. "We saw two established teams compete earlier in the show. It looks like now we're going to see a new team formed."

"So it seems," Trish agreed. "Someone has obviously agreed to team up with Sasha to make a challenge for the new titles. Who is it?"

Banks had quickly gone through her entrance routine. Her music faded out, soon being replaced by that of Ember Moon. The intro drew a notable cheer of approval.

"Oh yes, I like this team. I like this team a lot," Renee said. "Ember Moon and Sasha Banks have formed an alliance. This is not going to be an easy team to beat, I can tell you that."

"The War Goddess and The Boss are great wrestlers," Trish said. "But that doesn't make them a great team. They have no experience together; no chemistry. They'll have to get on the same page fast if they want to advance to Hell in a Cell."

"If they can work well together, though, what a team!" Renee enthused.

Receiving another cheer, Ember completed her entrance by standing on a middle turnbuckle to pose. When she jumped back down to the mat, her music faded.

"And their opponents," Jojo said, having already announced Sasha and Ember during their entrances.

The drum solo that served as the intro for Bayley's music began to play, immediately being booed.

"As you can hear, not a great reaction for Bayley," Renee commented.

"I don't think you're on message, Renee," Trish countered. "Reaction or no reaction, Bayley doesn't care anymore!"

"Very good, Trish. I see what you did there," Renee said dryly. "Honestly, after what we've seen from Bayley these past couple of months, I have to wonder who has agreed to team with her?"

"Let's find out," Trish said.

Looking smug about her chances, Bayley had stopped halfway down the ramp to wait for her partner.

Alexa's music hit, to quite a loud reaction from the fans. Even though she was a heel, she was one that people liked to cheer for.

"Oh yes, I like this," Trish decided as Alexa walked out onto the stage and gave her signature pose. "Alexa Bliss and Bayley, what a team this could be."

"They certainly have plenty in common," Renee scoffed. "They're both appalling human beings. The only thing I don't really understand is how two people as self-centred as Alexa and Bayley can coexist as a team."

"I guess we'll soon see, one way or another," Trish said. "Like we just said about Moon and Banks, they've never teamed together before. But if they do manage to stay on the same page, the rest of the women in this new tag team division had better watch their backs. I see the potential for real dominance here."

Walking side by side, Alexa and Bayley made their way to ring. Keen to get her hands on Bayley after two consecutive losses, Sasha opted to start the match for her team. Seeing that, Bayley quickly decided that she would be the one to step out onto the apron, ducking the confrontation. Those in the crowd who were on the ball booed the cowardly act as the referee called for the bell.

For most of the first ten minutes of the match, the Bayley and Alexa team looked very impressive. They made frequent tags and used ring craft and manipulation of the referee to isolate Sasha in the ring, keeping her away from Ember so that she couldn't tag out. Several near falls were scored on Banks, but nothing quite got the job done.

Ultimately, it was frustration that cost the heel team. Bayley lost her cool with the referee after a long two count. Pursuing him across the ring, she slapped her hands together and yelled at him to count faster.

"Bayley needs to keep focused on the job at hand," Renee said.

Almost immediately, she was proven correct. Sasha rushed Bayley from behind and hit her with a Backstabber. In the corner, Ember started the fans clapping to get behind Sasha in her attempt to crawl across the ring for the tag.

Bayley reached Alexa and tagged first, but Bliss wasn't able to get into the ring and run over to stop Sasha's tag in time. Leaping the last few feet, Banks brought Moon into the match at last, the fans exploding for her.

Ember started going to town on Alexa with a barrage of striking attacks and signature moves. Seeing that her partner was in trouble, Bayley rushed back into the ring, only to be clotheslined over the top rope by Moon.

"Look out, Bayley! Ember's going to fly!" Trish called out.

While Bayley slowly got to her feet, looking dazed, Ember sprinted across the ring to the opposite side and hit the ropes. Running at full speed, she launched herself through the ropes, hitting Bayley like a freight train and sending her crashing back first into the ringside barricade. The crowd were loving it.

"Bayley taken out! Ember Moon is on a roll!" Renee called.

Leaving Bayley on the floor, lying near to Sasha, who just starting to get back up, Ember headed back into the ring. The time she had taken to deal with Bayley had allowed Alexa some respite. The Goddess was on her feet, and caught Ember with a DDT out of nowhere as she climbed back through the ropes.

"DDT! Alexa Bliss is the legal woman!" Renee cried.

"Alexa for the win!" Trish shouted as the cover was hurriedly made.

One.

Two.

Three.

Sasha had tried to get into the ring to break up the pin, but Bayley had grabbed her foot, preventing her from doing so.

"Got her!" Trish cried. "Bliss and Bayley win! They're going to Hell in a Cell!"

Renee said, "Ember Moon allowed herself to be distracted by dealing with Bayley, and, ever the opportunist, Alexa Bliss took full advantage. I have to admit, Bliss and Bayley looked good tonight, and they're off to a winning start. They will meet Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville at Hell in a Cell for the Women's Tag Team Championships."

As soon as she had gotten the three count, Alexa had scooted from the ring in front of the entrance ramp. Breaking free of Bayley's grasp, Sasha had rushed in to check on her defeated partner, which in turn gave Bayley the chance to retreat around the ring, meeting Bliss at the bottom of the ramp. To celebrate the win, Bayley issued her partner with the first Bayley hug since she had turned heel. Apparently her partner was worthy of one.

"What a sickening display," Renee groaned. "Now all of a sudden Bayley wants to start hugging again?"

"Alexa is her partner, Renee," Trish said. "And they just got a huge victory. Why shouldn't they celebrate with a hug? Just because Bayley thinks none of the fans are deserving of hugs anymore…"

"Well, hugs or not, Alexa and Bayley did get a huge victory here," Renee admitted as the triumphant team walked backwards up the ramp with arrogant smiles on their faces. "They'll be taking on Rose and Deville, and what a contest that's going to be!"

It fell to Trish to end the show's first episode as the WWE logo appeared in the corner of the screen. "What a debut show this has been! Bayley and Alexa Bliss victorious here on the first ever episode of Women's Evolution!"


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm sure that's the same woman we met at our house," Seth said as he slowly parked up behind the silver Mercedes belonging to the real estate agent they had come to meet.

"Yeah, I recognise her," Bayley said cheerfully from the passenger seat. "I think her name was Liza, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, I think you might be right," Seth said thoughtfully. He killed the engine and they got out of the car. They had only driven a couple of miles from home. Buying somewhere relatively local to them made a lot of sense.

The agent had been standing beside the car while she waited for them to arrive, wearing a well-tailored light grey business suit. She had started walking over towards them as soon as Seth had pulled the car up to the curb. "Morning," she said with a professional but genuinely warm smile. "I believe we've met before. Seth and Bayley, right? I'm Liza."

"We remember you," Bayley assured her with a broad smile, shaking hands. "You showed us around our house."

Liza correctly recalled the name of the street they lived on. Seth had to wonder if she had looked it up on some computer system ahead of time. Either way, he offered his hand and smiled. "Good to see you again."

"On the move already?" Liza enquired after the handshake, turning her attention to the two storey house that she was about to show them around.

"No. This one is going to be a business venture. We're looking for somewhere to buy and renovate."

"Before selling for a profit," Liza added, nodding her understanding.

"In an ideal world, yeah," Bayley grinned.

On the way up the short driveway, Liza reminded them of the particulars of the property, along with its guide price at the auction that was to take place the following week. The reminders were unnecessary, for Bayley had already noted them down on the first page of the notepad she had brought with her. She felt like a professional property developer for the first time, showing up prepared for the viewing and ready to make notes about what work the house would need to bring it up to scratch for selling on. Seth had enough knowledge to take a guess at what any of the costs involved might be, and from there they could work out what their total spend on the project would be, and offset that against what the fully renovated property should be worth on the market.

"We'll have a look around by ourselves if that's okay?" Seth asked Liza after she opened the front door for them.

"Absolutely. Here are the keys so you can let yourselves out into the garden if you wish. I'll be in the car when you're done."

Seth thanked her, then led Bayley inside the house. "It looked okay from the outside, right?" she asked. "I couldn't see any damage on the roof. There were no broken tiles or anything. Front garden needs some TLC, but that's not a problem. The driveway doesn't need any work." She made a note of it on her pad.

Stopping just inside the hallway, Seth turned and looked at her, a big smile on his face.

"What?" she asked self-consciously.

"I just love you, that's all," he said, giving her a peck on the lips.

Bayley's cheeks warmed up a little bit. "I love you too. But what made you say that?"

"I'm proud. Seeing you knowing what to look for, making notes on it, and thinking about the things you know how to do now, I find it adorable."

"Well, I learned it all from you," she said sweetly. "We'd better start looking around, baby."

"You're right," he agreed. With that, they got down to business. "Before we do, you're right, the outside looks good, apart from the garden. Now, I smell damp from somewhere," was his first observation.

"Yeah, me too," Bayley said. She looked down the hallway, then up the staircase, the bottom of which was near to the front door. Whoever had owned the house last had taken up all of the carpets and flooring, leaving the bare concrete floor and wooden staircase. "The stairs look in good condition," she commented.

"No need to replace the staircase," he confirmed. "Remember the state ours was in?"

"Yeah," she chuckled as she made another note on her pad. The staircase in their house had been rotting when they bought the place, thanks to a leaky roof that had allowed water to do serious damage to the house. They had ripped out the ruined staircase and replaced it with a marble one that was now the centrepiece of their beautiful home. Bayley still felt immensely proud of it every time she set eyes on it.

But that kind of lavish spending wasn't going to be the order of the day here. The objective was to bring the house up to a finished standard that buyers would pay good money for, without having to spend a huge amount in the process. At the end of the day, while they wanted to enjoy doing the work together, profit was the name of the game.

"Found the damp," Seth reported. He had just walked through the first door on the left side of the hallway.

Bayley followed him, entering what would be a living room if there was any furniture in it. It was currently stripped totally bare, even of flooring and plaster on the walls. Low down in the far corner, near the window that looked out over the front garden, there was a large patch of green mould on the wall, indicating a damp problem. "Oh, what's causing that?" she asked, realising that it obviously wasn't the roof leaking as had been the case in their house.

"Bad installation of the damp proofing, most likely," Seth said, crouching down to get a better look at the damp. He briefly explained how the problem could be resolved by injecting silicone-based liquid into the wall from the outside, and told her how much to put down on the notepad for a cost.

"I don't understand why it's been left the way it has," Bayley said, looking around at the walls. "It's like someone bought it and started work, then gave up."

"Maybe that is what happened?" he replied with a shrug. "Who knows? What matters is they've already taken up the flooring and stripped the plaster. Two big jobs we won't have to do."

"True," Bayley nodded. They went back out into the hallway, then through to another totally empty room that was adjacent to the living room. It was in a similar condition, even with damp under the window again.

"Perfect size for a dining room," Seth observed. "We could even consider knocking through that wall to make one large dining and living area."

"Oh, maybe!" Bayley exclaimed excitedly. "I was thinking that these rooms might look a bit small when they were furnished. It's kind of hard to tell when they're totally empty."

"You're right," Seth said, again feeling proud of her insight. She really had taken in everything he had taught her about property and DIY, and more besides. "Damp, again," he said, pointing. "Double that damp proof budget, Bay. We'll have to do the whole house."

"Alright. How much shall I allow for plastering, flooring and decoration?"

"Let's look around the rest of the house first and see how much of it we have to do."

With that, Seth led the way out of the room and walked the short distance to the end of the hallway, heading through an open door into the kitchen.

"Well, that's all going to have to come out," Bayley said as she followed behind him. She was referring to the dated kitchen units and work surfaces. They looked like they were at least twenty years old, probably more.

"Yeah, but the room isn't a bad size. Not enough space to put an island in, but this is a smaller house than ours anyway."

Again, the flooring had been taken up and the plaster removed from the walls. There were also no light fittings in the ceiling. Loose wires dangled from the holes where they had been.

"We should put something in the budget for someone to check out the wiring and the plumbing," Bayley suggested. Those expert trades were things they wouldn't get involved in.

Seth nodded and gave her a figure to write down. Having wandered over to the far end of the kitchen, he looked out of the window at the garden. "Lots of work to be done out there," he said.

"Let's go out and have a look," Bayley said, waiting by the back door.

Seth walked over with the keys and unlocked the cheap-looking UPVC door. He asked Bayley to write down an amount for replacing it with something better, then they walked out into the garden. A paved area led up the side of the house towards what had presumably been a lawn at some point. Now it was a catastrophic mess of chest high weeds and other plants.

"Oh, man," Bayley muttered, seeing what a task it was going to be to deal with the mess and make the garden presentable.

"I guess it's a good thing you've been getting into gardening," Seth said with a thin smile on his face. "But on the plus side, a garden in this state really drives down the value of the house, partially explaining why the auction price is low."

"Okay, well I'll take on this mess," Bayley said. It's impossible to even see how long the garden is, or what's in it!"

"That'll be part of the fun," Seth grinned. "Who knows what you might find?"

They headed back into the house and up the stairs. The landing and the three bedrooms were unremarkable, in a similar state to the rooms downstairs with no flooring or plaster.

"Are we going to do all of this plastering ourselves?" Bayley asked.

"Yeah," Seth said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Like I said the other day, there's no rush to get the job finished. And what's the point paying people to do jobs we can do ourselves?"

"I'll need you to teach me how to do it again. I never really got the hang of it at our place."

"You did just fine. But sure, I'll show you again."

"Yay!" Bayley said sweetly, stretching up for a kiss.

In that moment, as their lips touched, Seth found himself wondering how he had found himself a girl who was perfect in every way imaginable. He really was a lucky son of a bitch, he thought with a contented smile.

"Bathroom next?" Bayley said unnecessarily, since it was the only room left for them to check out.

Seth gestured for her to leave the bedroom they were standing in. "After you."

Bayley went through to the bathroom, sounding unsurprised by what she found. "This has seen better days, Seth. I'm thinking complete replacement?"

Walking in behind her, Seth cringed. The bathroom suite was very dated, and even if it hadn't been, he couldn't have accepted the vile beige colour of it. "What a horrid colour. Why would someone have bought that? Yes, definitely needs replacing." He added a figure for the job.

"Okay then, are we happy that's everything?" Bayley asked, drawing a line under her note about a complete new bathroom suite.

"Yeah, that'll pretty much do it." He added a few figures for remaining items, and an estimated total for what the plastering and flooring would cost them.

Bayley took a minute to add up all of the figures she had written down. When she was done, she showed him the total. "That's not bad, is it?" she ventured.

"Not at all," Seth said, nodding his satisfaction. "And there's nothing here that can't be fixed relatively easily with time and hard work. I say we go for it, if we can get it for a decent price at the auction."

"Me too! I really hope we get it," Bayley squeaked, almost bouncing up and down in excitement.


	10. Chapter 10

_WWE Hell in a Cell – September 16th 2018_

Bayley was whipped into the ropes by Sonya Deville. At the same moment, Alexa Bliss had gotten up on the apron after slamming Mandy Rose into the ringside barricade. Bayley collided with Alexa, sending her flying off the apron, hitting the barricade face first.

"What are you doing?" Bayley yelled at her partner, spreading her arms wide and momentarily losing focus on the match and her opponent. It was a fatal mistake.

When Bayley turned around, Sonya was ready and waiting, and connected with a stiff kick to the side of her head, turning her lights out and sending her collapsing to the mat like a bag of wet sand.

"What a kick by Sonya!" Renee Young cried on commentary. "Deville into the cover! This would be a huge upset!"

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

The crowd cheered loudly, in surprise as much as delight. Even Sonya didn't seem to believe that she had just won the Women's Tag Team Championships for her team.

"They did it!" Trish Stratus shouted. "What an upset! The upset to end all upsets!"

"At the start of this tournament, no one gave Sonya and Mandy even an outside chance of victory," Renee agreed. "But they've done it! They're the Women's Tag Team Champions!"

Mandy re-entered the ring and rushed over to embrace her partner. Shock was written all over both of their faces. The seemingly improbable win had further cemented their new status as babyfaces. They spent a minute or so celebrating with their newly-won belts before leaving the ring.

Bayley was just getting up, looking dazed by the kick she had taken to the side of her head. Alexa was also back up. She rolled back into the ring before standing with her hands on her hips and a look of annoyance on her face. Her anger was aimed squarely at her partner.

Sonya's music stopped playing, leaving the fans to fill the silence with boos and jeers for the two women now standing in the ring.

"What was that?" Alexa demanded, clearly blaming Bayley for the collision that had cost them for the match.

"Where were you? Why didn't you stop the count?" Bayley fired back, holding the side of her head.

"Maybe you shouldn't have knocked me off the ring?" Alexa yelled back, getting even more heated.

Bayley squared up to her, towering over the much smaller woman. "Maybe I shouldn't have picked you as my partner?"

"Maybe you shouldn't," Alexa raged back, pushing Bayley with both hands, sending her staggering back a couple of steps.

"That may not have been the smartest move Alexa Bliss has ever made," Renee commented as the fans gave a collective 'Ohhh!'

It seemed to take a moment for Bayley to comprehend what had just happened. The fact that her supposed partner would have the nerve to push her didn't seem to compute. Eventually, she pushed Alexa back, much harder than she had been pushed herself. Bliss fell down on her ass, but bounced right back up and rushed at Bayley. The two women started flailing away each other with right hands.

"So much for this team, I guess," Trish said. "Bayley and Alexa are attacking each other now. Look at them go!"

The crowd cheered the destruction of the brief alliance between the two heels, but began booing again when Bayley got the upper hand, forcing Alexa back into the corner.

The referee who had officiated the tag team match had rushed back to the ring to try and break up the fight. He had limited success, managing to get Bayley to back off and let Alexa out of the corner. However, when Bliss came staggering out into the middle of the ring, Bayley hit her with a lifting spine buster.

"Savage spine buster by Bayley," Renee called.

"And she's still not done," Trish reported.

Bayley stepped through the ropes and climbed up to the top turnbuckle. Wasting no time on ceremony, she leapt into the air and came crashing down on her former partner with an elbow drop.

"I guess that's what you get for trying to partner up with Bayley," Renee said. "She truly is a nasty piece of work."

"Alexa Bliss threw the first punch," Trish pointed out. "They're both as bad as each other, but Bayley won the fight. Regardless, we've obviously seen the last of this team. Bayley has decided she's better off alone, and that's bad news for the rest of the women's division."

Bayley stood there glaring down at Alexa for a moment before her music began to play. She left the ring and made her way to the back, making a point of not looking back towards the ring the whole way up the entrance ramp.

* * *

"That was an odd match," Bayley commented to Seth. They were in their hire car, having just left the arena after the pay-per-view for their drive to the city where the next night's Raw and Women's Evolution episodes were going to emanate from.

"Yeah," Seth agreed, knowing that she was referring to her tag team contest. "I thought there was some mileage in having you and Alexa together as a team. Apparently creative didn't agree, for whatever reason."

"And now, as seems to be usual, I have no idea where they're going next with me."

"Don't worry about it, angel," Seth said, glancing at her from the driver's seat. "We both know Hunter has a lot of faith in you, and they're bound to push you with this new gimmick they've given you. It's seriously hot, too," he added. "You make such a good job of playing a nasty bitch."

Bayley turned to him with one of her cutest smiles on her face. "But you loved the hugger, too."

"Of course I did. Everyone loved the hugger. But I think I like loner Bayley even more."

"Only because I wear leather and keep my hair down," she teased.

"You said that, not me," Seth said, feigning innocence that was fooling no one.

They drove on in silence for a few minutes. Seth could tell that while she had put a brave face on it for him, she was still brooding over the wayward creative she had been given. He didn't want it to start weighing on her too heavily, so he decided to bring up something more positive for them to talk about.

"Only a few days to the auction," he ventured, referring to their opportunity to buy the house that they had viewed as the potential first business opportunity for Bayllins Property Developers. The company was now founded, and Seth had purchased a van which was now in the process of having branding graphics applied to it, not that Bayley knew anything about those things. It was all going to be a surprise for her when he came home with the van when it was finished.

"I can't wait!" Bayley said, brightening up immediately, as he had known she would. "I hope we get it. We have to get it!"

"I want to get it, but we have to keep in mind that this is business, Bay. We need to pay a reasonable price. If there's someone else there who decides to be stupid about it, we may have to let it go."

"I know you're right," she admitted. "But that had better not happen. If it does, I'll be dropping another elbow on someone!"

"That's my girl!" Seth exclaimed with a contended laugh. As ever, her natural bubbly and excitable personality hadn't been hard to bring back to the surface.

"I'm just going to look on the positive side," she said. "This time next week, the house will belong to us, and we'll have hopefully made a start on it."

Seth glanced at her and smiled. "I certainly hope so," he said with confidence in his voice.

* * *

Any nervousness that Seth and Bayley had been feeling about the auction had proven to be unfounded. Only one other person had bid on the house that they had gone there hoping to purchase, and his interest had been fairly half-hearted. It had come as a surprise to Seth that they had won the bidding so easily, but it had definitely been a pleasant surprise.

Now, on Saturday morning, he had just been and picked up the newly-customised van which had the Bayllins Property Developers branding on the side of it – a similar yellow coloured cartoon drawing of a person with a black side ponytail to the one that WWE had at one time used for Bayley's merchandise. In the Bayllins logo, the character was holding a plasterer's trowel. Even Seth found it cute, so he could only imagine how Bayley was going to react in a couple of minutes, when he got home. He had told her he was going out to 'pick up a few things' before they could head over to the house they were going to start work on. They had started referring to it as 'the project' to save the confusion of having two places to call 'the house'.

Before leaving, Seth had asked Bayley to start getting all of their tools and supplies ready, and bring them out of the utility room at the front of their house. She probably assumed they were going to be making a couple of trips in the car to get everything to the project, but no, it was all going to be put in the van, where it would stay from now on.

Seth approached the house as quietly as he could and parked the van on their driveway, quickly killing the engine. He saw that the front door was open, and Bayley had begun stacking up some of their power tools in their heavy duty cases just inside the hallway. He just had time to get out of the van before she appeared in the doorway, having heard his arrival despite his attempt at stealth.

"Seth!" Bayley squealed, looking at the van with wide eyes.

The way her face had lit up was more than worth the money spent on the van to Seth. He raised his right arm, presenting the Bayllins logo to her. "What do you think?"

"What do I think?" she exclaimed, running over to him like a kid on Christmas morning. "I love it! I love it! I can't believe you got this done without me knowing a thing about it!"

"That's how surprises work, babe," he beamed. "Bayllins Property Developers is officially a company, and we have our own van!"

To his surprise, Bayley put her hands over her face. It took him a second to process that she was crying. "Bay?" he asked with concern, wrapping her up in a hug. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, her voice muffled by her hands and the fact that she was pressed against his chest. "Nothing's wrong. I'm so happy, I just can't deal with it."

"Awww, angel," Seth said as his heart melted. "That's all I ever want to hear. If you're happy, that's all I need to make me happy."

Bayley wriggled out of his embrace so that she could look up at him with her teary eyes. "I love you so much," she said with a sniff. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, but I'm so lucky."

"If you ask me, I'm the lucky one," he replied before leaning down to give her a sloppy kiss. "Now what do you say we get our stuff into our new van, and we go start work on Bayllins' first project? We have to get the car, too. It's parked near the shop where I got the van from."

"I say yes, let's do it," she said, looking at him adoringly. She reached up and gave him another kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too." He set off towards the small stack of power tools, with Bayley walking beside him. "In fact, I love you so much, I'll do the heavy lifting."


	11. Chapter 11

Thanks to being on the road for WWE so much of the time, Seth and Bayley had made a slow start to their first restoration project. It wasn't for any lack of desire or effort on their part, it was simply that they had not been there to do the work.

This week though, they had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, giving them a good opportunity to make some real progress.

Friday had been spent with Seth tearing out the old kitchen units and work surfaces, and throwing them into the large dumpster that currently sat on the driveway. Meanwhile, Bayley had made an excellent job of re-plastering the living room. Seth had been delighted with the expertise she had shown at the difficult task. The room could be painted the next time they had a chance to work, as the plaster required another couple of days to totally dry.

On Saturday morning, the two owners of Bayllins Property Developers had been up early for breakfast before heading over to the project to crack on with the work.

Seth started out the day's work in the kitchen. The units and work surfaces were all out now, leaving some loose electrical cables protruding from the wall in a couple of places. In addition, there were cables hanging from the ceiling where light fittings had once been. He decided that although they had already been isolated at the fuse box, it would be a good idea to make doubly sure that the cables were left safe.

He walked through to what would eventually become the house's dining room, where he and Bayley had chosen to store all of their supplies and tools.

It didn't take Seth long to locate a wide roll of black electrical tape. He returned to the kitchen with it, and set about taping up all of the loose ends of the various cables, ensuring beyond doubt that no misfortune could happen to anyone.

The task took him several minutes. When it was complete, he was about to throw the tape aside onto the floor and move on to his next task. But then, a better idea came to mind. There was another excellent use he could put it to. Bayley loved to be tied up with tape, and it had been quite a while since he had indulged her. She was in for a surprise, he decided as a smile appeared on his face.

There was no time like the present. With the tape in hand, Seth walked quietly out of the kitchen, heading for the living room, where Bayley was by now presumably busy with her second task of the day – painting the ceiling. She had a radio on quietly in there, and he could hear her humming along to some dance track or other that he didn't recognise.

Sneaking into the room, Seth found Bayley had her back to him, working at the far end of the room, using a roller with a long handle to paint the ceiling. The opportunity was perfect for him. He smiled again at how cute she looked wearing her blue overalls covered in paint and plaster stains, along with black latex gloves. Even paint was too much for her weird phobia of getting her hands dirty. She even had her hair in the adorable side ponytail that had once been a much-loved feature of her character, before she had turned heel.

Bayley sensed Seth coming up behind her, but not quite quickly enough. Before she could react, he wrapped an arm around her chest, pulling her tightly to him. At the same time, he clamped his other hand over her mouth, knowing it would instantly turn her on as it was a big fetish for her.

"Mmmpph!" she yelped into his hand, grabbing it with one of hers, not that she was strong enough to pull it away.

"Sshhh," he whispered into her ear. "I'm going to tie you up and gag you. It will be easier for both of us if you don't struggle."

He delighted in feeling her squirm uncontrollably in excitement. The muffled sound that she made might well have been an involuntary response of delight. She loved what he had said to her.

Seth raised the roll of tape that was in his other hand so that she could see it. "I think this will do the job nicely. Now, I'm going to have to take my hand off your mouth to tape it up. Stay quiet, alright?"

Bayley managed to nod slightly. When Seth took his hand away, she let out a ragged breath that was born of sheer sexual excitement. Wasting no time, Seth stretched out a length of tape from the roll, stuck the end to her cheek and pulled it tight across her mouth. Standing behind her was the perfect place to work from.

"Mmmmm," Bayley protested as her lips were sealed, testing the effectiveness of the gag for the first time. She knew by now that Seth wouldn't hold back, which was just the way she wanted it. She was literally on fire already, the surprise turning her on as well as the impending bondage that she was going to be put in.

Seth wrapped the tape around her head three times, as tightly as he could. It virtually covered her face from the bottom of her nose to her chin. There was only one way the tape was coming off, and that was by him choosing to remove it. And that wouldn't be happening any time soon, she knew.

With the gag in place, Seth's next decision was how to tie Bayley up in such a way that was difficult, or ideally impossible, for her to escape from. Initially, he thought he might have to leave her sitting on the floor, but after a glance around the room, he saw that there was a better option. The day before, they had brought two old wooden dining chairs into the room to sit on while they had a cup of coffee and a break. The gaps between the bars on the back of the chair were just wide enough to pass her hands through, he estimated.

"Alright, over here," he ordered as he started to drag her towards the chairs.

Bayley was burning up as she was forced to sit on one of the dining chairs. Since most of their bondage experiences happened in the bedroom for obvious reasons, she hadn't been tied to a chair like this before. It was clear that was about to change. For the time being, since she had her overalls on, there wasn't even going to be any sex. She was going to be left bound, gagged and unable to escape. That was fine with her, so long as sex came eventually. The longer she was tied to the chair, the more desperate she would be for it.

Seth pulled Bayley's hands behind her back and between the bars on the back of the chair. Holding them together with one hand, he set about wrapping the tape around her wrists. By now, he was an expert at applying tape bondage tight enough to be inescapable but not tight enough to cut off circulation. Within moments, her wrists were secured. As an added bonus, the gloves she was wearing made it even less likely that she might be able to somehow start picking at the tape with her nails. She wouldn't be able to get off the chair now, but Seth wasn't close to done with her yet.

"Wmmmt tmm hell?" Bayley squealed, playing along with her part as the victim as Seth started wrapping tape around her stomach and the back of the chair to hold her in place. It took him a minute to work around her several times.

"Good," he pronounced after tearing the roll free. "I bet you can't move now?"

Growling angrily, Bayley struggled against the tape. It delighted her how little result she got for her efforts. In that moment, she realised that there was a finishing touch Seth could make to leave her completely helpless. To encourage him along, she aimed a kick at him, which missed.

"Oh, that's the way it is?" Seth asked with a cocky smile on his face. "Right, I can soon take care of your legs, too."

Bayley couldn't contain her delight as first her right ankle, then her left were secured to the chair legs, each one wrapped in several layers of tape. Seth had used most of what had been left on the roll on her.

"Perfect," Seth said, standing back to admire his handiwork. "I figure you won't be going anywhere any time soon. So, sit there and be quiet. If you're lucky, I might be back to untie you in a couple of hours or so, when I'm done it the kitchen."

"Mmmmpph," Bayley moaned pathetically, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

"You can look cute all you want, it's not going to make any difference," Seth told her before turning and walking out of the room. Only the bulge in his overalls gave the lie to his tough guy act. Tying her up had turned him on almost as much as it had her, she figured.

The situation she had been left in had Bayley on fire and craving sexual release more than release from the bondage. To heighten her experience even further, Seth had left her alone so that she could struggle for freedom. He had done that before when tying her to their bed, but never like this. Opportunity or not, she couldn't imagine how she might get out of this situation, not taped up this well.

She spent a few minutes struggling against the bonds and trying to talk through the gag, achieving precisely nothing the whole time. Nothing other than turning herself on even more, at least. It certainly wouldn't have taken much at all from Seth to get her to reach her peak.

Out of breath from struggling, Bayley took a moment to look around the room. There was an old table standing against the wall. They had been using it basically to throw tools and stuff onto while they had been working. Among the clutter that was currently on there, she saw a pair of scissors. If she could just get to them and manage to pick them up, she might be able to cut the tape free from her wrists, and if she could do that, she would be able to remove the rest of it.

"Cmmm onn!" she growled as she started struggling to move the chair across the room towards the table. With her ankles taped to the legs, it was close to impossible. She also had to be careful not to tip the chair over. Although Seth would come running and free her if he heard a crash like that, the fall would still hurt.

Grunting with the effort, Bayley managed to work out a way of moving that shifted the chair a few inches at a time across the bare wooden floor. It took her several minutes to reach the table, by which time her breathing was laboured and she was sweating with the effort she had put in. Still the bonds and gag remained tight and effective.

Not for much longer, she thought with determination as her fingers started to feel the objects on the table behind her. A paintbrush was the first thing she felt. That was no good to her. Then she felt metal, cool even through her latex gloves, which were now making her hands sweat. The scissors!

Bayley cried out into the tape when she almost had the scissors in her hand, only for them to fall. Luckily, they landed back on the table, and she was able to try again. This time, she was able to pick up one of the handles, opening the scissors in the process of lifting them. Perfect, she thought, beginning to saw away at the tape around her wrists, being careful not to stab or cut herself in the process.

After a minute or so of sawing, she felt a layer of the tape snap loose, and then another. Her hands were almost free. Yanking her wrists apart as hard as she could tore the rest of the tape loose. She had the use of her hands back.

The next job was to strip off the gloves to expose her short finger nails. Short or not, they at least gave her something to use to find the end of the tape that Seth had wrapped around her mouth. Slowly, she unwrapped the gag, being careful not to hurt her lips as the adhesive reluctantly gave up its grip on them.

"Better luck next time, Seth," she muttered once she was able, balling up the tape and throwing it on the floor. She gasped in a few grateful breaths before continuing to free herself, working next on the tape around her stomach.

In another couple of minutes, she was able to extricate herself from the chair, leaving a bunch of tape strewn on the floor around it. For the moment, she didn't care about that. All she was interesting in was going through to the kitchen to rub her success in Seth's face.

Bayley walked out into the hallway and went to stand in the kitchen doorway. When she got there, Seth noticed her and turned to her with a look of surprise on her face.

"Ta da!" Bayley proclaimed, spreading her arms to show off and giving him a smug smile. "You'll have to tie me up better than that next time."

Seth laughed as he walked over to her. "I'll keep that in mind, angel. You're a tricky little one, for sure. And there I was, planning to come back in there for sex at some point."

"I think after I got out of that lot, sex is the least you can do, mister," Bayley said with a sassy attitude.

"Good point," Seth said gruffly, leaning down to start kissing her neck.


	12. Chapter 12

"Man, that was hard work," Bayley said, taking in a couple of deep breaths and wiping her brow. There had been a big smile on her face as she said it.

"I'd say that's a great start," Seth said approvingly, handing her a bottle of water. He looked at the long lawn in the rear garden of their restoration project, which Bayley had just gone over from end to end with a string trimmer. The grass had been so overgrown that she had only taken off the top half of it, on advice from Seth.

"So, why did I only cut down half of it? I don't really understand," Bayley said after downing the whole bottle of water. Even in the cool November air, she had worked up quite a sweat. She opened the zipper on the front of her overalls a bit to help her cool down.

"Because it needs to be cut with a mover to get a proper finish, but it was too long for a mower to get through it," Seth explained. "I'd say leave it for a few days before cutting it again, though. We don't want to ruin it."

"You're the gardener, apparently," Bayley said with a grin. "I thought I was supposed to be the one who knew the most about this side of things?"

Seth smiled back at her. "I'm sure you are. I just remember my mom helping some neighbours of ours cut their lawn when they moved in. It was in a similar state to this, and for whatever reason her advice stuck in my head."

"That's kind of sweet, actually," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Hey, I found something at the bottom of the garden. Come and look."

"What is it? A dead body? The Holy Grail?"

"No, silly," she giggled. "It is something cool, though."

"Duct tape?" Seth guessed.

"No! And don't think I've forgotten about what you did the other week, mister."

Seth raised his eyebrows. "I haven't forgotten, either. You told me to do a better job of tying you up next time. That was noted."

Bayley decided to play it cool and ignore that comment, simply walking off towards the bottom of the garden. "Come and look," she repeated.

Seth quickly caught up to her and trampled his way across the mess that was one day going to be a nice lawn. As they approached the bottom of the garden, he still couldn't see what she was talking about, since he doubted she meant the wooden fence panels that had seen better days.

"Look!" Bayley said, pointing towards the ground.

And then Seth saw it. There was a pond there, obscured under a mess of grass and weeds. It obviously hadn't been used for keeping fish for many years.

"A fish pond," Bayley reported excitedly. "We can clear it out and put some fish in it."

Seth hated to burst her bubble, but they had to keep in mind that they were not fixing this house up to live in it themselves; they were renovating to sell for a profit, or possibly to keep and rent out. That was Seth's latest idea. Bayllins Property Developers could build up a portfolio of homes and rent them out, earning money while still owning the houses and land. He hadn't discussed it with Bayley yet, but he was warming towards that idea rather than selling outright, figuring that if they eventually had kids, it would give them something substantial to leave behind one day.

"You don't look excited," Bayley observed with disappointment.

"Angel, this isn't going to be our house," he reminded her. "We've always got to keep that in mind. This will be an ideal home for a young family. Think about if it was us in that situation. You wouldn't want a pond at the bottom of a garden where young kids were playing. It would be dangerous."

Nodding slowly, Bayley took the point on-board. "Yes, I can see that," she acknowledged. "So, we have to fill it in?"

Seth put an arm around her to soften the blow. "Yes. Unfortunately, we have to fill it in."

"Aww," Bayley sighed, nestling against him.

They stood there for a moment, enjoying holding each other, and Seth kissed her lightly on the top of the head.

"So, how's it going inside?" she asked eventually.

"The kitchen fitters should be done by tomorrow," Seth reported. They had a specialist company putting in the new kitchen for them, as it was a little beyond their ability level, and needed to be done perfectly.

"Yay," Bayley said, looking up at him. That piece of news wasn't a surprise to her as the men from the kitchen company had been banging away in the house for a couple of days now. "And what about you?" she asked.

"Finished the last of the plastering upstairs, apart from the bathroom of course." They were waiting on a plumber to install a new bathroom suite for them before they could look at decorating the room.

"We're making great progress," Bayley said, smiling happily. The living and dining rooms were painted now, along with the downstairs hallway. They only needed their new laminate floors before they were completed.

"We are. At this rate, we might even be done by the new year."

"I'm so glad we started this business, Seth. It's a lot of hard work, but I love it."

Seth leaned down and kissed her. "Me too, babe. Most of all, I love doing it with you."

This time it was Bayley who went in for a kiss before saying, "I suppose we should get back to it, huh?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I might go out in the van and pick up that laminate flooring we choose for downstairs. I can't do much else upstairs today, with the plaster needing to dry."

"Okay, sounds like a plan." Bayley turned and looked at the border that ran all down the right side of the lawn. It was totally overgrown with weeds and bushes, making clearing it seem like a daunting prospect. "Meanwhile, I'll make a start on that lot, I guess."

Seth nodded. "It's a shame we're not allowed to burn garden waste in this area. We're going to have to take it to a dump."

"Okay. I'll pile it all up somewhere then, and we can barrow it around the front and into the van when we're ready," Bayley said. "I'll have to rake through the grass so we can get all of the cuttings out of here too."

"We'll do that together tomorrow," Seth decided. "I'll buy a couple of rakes while I'm out. I'll see if I can find a little chainsaw somewhere too, to make easier work of those bushes."

"Sounds good to me."

They headed back to the house, and Seth made his way out front to the van, while Bayley went to use the bathroom. When she came back outside a few minutes later, she was ready to start tackling the weeds.

"Shame I forgot to ask him to get me some proper gardening gloves," she muttered to herself. The only remotely suitable ones she had found in the house were yellow rubber ones. Deciding they would have to do, she put them on and walked over to the end of the border closest to the house. At least they would stop her from getting mud on her hands, she thought with a shudder.

"So it begins," Bayley said, crouching down to pull out the first of what was going to be a countless number of clumps of weeds.

For maybe half an hour, Bayley toiled away at her task, working her way down the border. As she did so, she found herself thinking herself lucky that she was in great shape physically. Gardening like this would have been a killer if she was unfit.

"Excuse me. I think it's time we had words."

The voice made Bayley jump. It was an elderly woman's voice, coming over the shoulder-high fence between the gardens. A neighbour, Bayley realised. A neighbour that didn't sound happy or friendly at all. She looked up and saw a woman with glasses, curly grey hair, wrinkled skin and a frown on her face looking down at her.

"Can I help you with something?" Bayley asked, keeping her tone pleasant as she stood up.

"You could try making less noise," the woman snapped.

Bayley's brown furrowed, not appreciating the way she was being spoken to. "What are you talking about? I'm out here pulling up weeds. I've barely made a sound for…"

"Not you. Whoever's in there," the woman said irritably, pointing towards the house.

Listening, Bayley heard the kitchen fitters hammering away at something. It had been happening so much for the past couple of days that she had gotten used to it and wasn't noticing it at this point. Apparently the same couldn't be said for the neighbour.

"Sorry about that. We're having a kitchen fitted," Bayley explained, remaining polite. "They'll hopefully be done by the end of the day."

"It's not just the kitchen though, is it?" the woman said, showing no sign of losing her attitude. "Ever since you bought the place it's been drilling, banging, driving that noisy van in and out all the time. People in this area like peace and quiet, you know."

Bayley couldn't remember drilling anything since they had started the project, but she wasn't going to get into an argument about it. She was rapidly tiring of this woman. "Look, we've bought the house, and we're renovating it. I'm sorry if the noise is disturbing you, but it's not exactly something that can be done quietly. As I already explained, the kitchen should be finished today. We are having a new bathroom suite put in upstairs soon though, so that will probably involve a bit of noisy work."

"Well that's just great, isn't it?" the woman huffed. "Sometimes I find it hard to sleep at night, and I need a nap during the day. How am I supposed to sleep with all that noise?"

"As I already said, I'm sorry about the noise, but the work needs to be done. We're not being overly noisy about it, and we're working as fast as we can. I don't know what else you want me to say to you."

Bayley's words seemed to get the woman even more riled up. "I'll be making a written complaint. The last thing we need is noisy neighbours. I feared something like this might happen if young people bought that place."

"We're not noisy neighbours!" Bayley fired back, finally losing her cool. "What don't you understand about the fact we're renovating the damn house? What do you want us to do, tiptoe around the place? I think you need to get in the real world."

"Typical attitude from someone your age," the woman said as she turned and walked away towards her house.

"I'll be cutting down bushes with a chainsaw later, so look forward to that!" Bayley shouted after her, clenching her hands into fists in anger. "Ugh. Stupid old hag," she groaned to herself once the woman was out of earshot.

Bayley went back to pulling up the weeds, now putting her anger into the task, really yanking them out of the ground as tossing them aside. She raged to herself as she worked. "Wait till Seth gets back with that chainsaw. I'll make some noise for you, alright."


	13. Chapter 13

The sound of a toilet flushing came from the bathroom. Seth could hardly wait for Bayley to come back into the bedroom. When she did, he had a surprise waiting for her. It had been weeks since she had escaped from his most recent attempt to tie her up and taunted him that he needed to do better next time. Next time was moments away, and he was indeed going to do better this time. A lot better. He had planned ahead of time what to do, and considered his plan to be flawless.

Moments later, after she had washed her hands, Bayley came walking back into the bedroom. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, and she had a tired, early morning look about her.

"I slept well," she informed him pleasantly. "How about you?"

"Yeah, I did too," he replied with a smile, lying nonchalantly on the bed with the blanket kicked off him. He spread him arms to invite her into a hug and said, "Come here."

"Aww, how sweet," Bayley said. She climbed onto the bed to accept his embrace, but when she did, Seth moved as quick as a flash, grabbing her and forcing her down onto the bed on her front, positioning himself on top of her in one fluid motion. He was now pinning her down, hard enough to keep her in place but not to the point where he would hurt her.

Bayley screamed in excitement, taken by surprise. "Seth, what are you doing?" she demanded, failing to stop herself laughing.

"What am I doing? Exactly what you told me to do," Seth replied. Bayley was lying with her head near to his pillow now, face turned towards it. He had stashed a few items under it while she had been in the bathroom, and now he moved it aside to reveal them.

"Wait, what?" Bayley gasped, feeling something stir inside her immediately. She was looking at two pairs of handcuffs and a roll of purple duct tape. The last thing she had expected was for Seth to tie her up and gag her at this time of day, but she supposed that was part of his plan, and he was going to use handcuffs! She hadn't even know that he had bought them. She wasn't going to complain about it, that was for sure. After all, she had meant it when she had told him to do better.

Seth picked up one of the pair of handcuffs. "You told me to tie you up better. That's what I'm going to do. Now get your hands behind your back."

"Oh, very authoritative," Bayley said, teasing him with her tone even as she complied with the instruction.

"We'll see how you long you keep using big words like that," Seth shot back, already turned on by what he was about to do to her. Bondage had started off as mainly her fetish, but over time he had come to enjoy it a lot too.

The handcuffs were soon locked in place on Bayley's wrists. Next, Seth picked up the other pair.

"My ankles as well?" she asked innocently.

"Your ankles too," he confirmed, turning around to apply them. As he did so, he considered tickling her feet. He could quickly take off the little white ankle socks she was wearing. Maybe later, he decided.

Bayley wriggled her arms and legs, testing her range of movement. "Okay, Rollins, you got me tied up. What do you need duct tape for?"

"Hmmm, I wonder," he said in response to her latest teasing. He picked up the roll and said, "I figure the first thing I do with it might be a surprise." Naturally, Bayley expected the tape to be used to gag her. And so it would, in time. But before that, Seth had another use for it.

"I like surprises," she said, clearly turned on.

"Good to know," Seth replied. He stretched out a length of tape from the brand new roll and stuck it to the chain between the handcuffs on her wrists. With that done, he lifted her ankles so that they were positioned not far from where her wrists would be able to reach up to.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Bayley asked.

"Tying you up properly, like I said." Seth set about taping the two pairs of handcuffs together, putting Bayley into a hogtie. He wrapped the tape around several times so that it would hopefully be strong enough to resist any attempts at struggling. "There we go," he announced with satisfaction when he tore the roll free.

Bayley was burning up, turned on to the point where she could feel her heart pounding. This was by far the most securely she had ever been bound. This predicament surely had to be inescapable, and that was driving her wild. And more was still to come. She didn't mind the pain in her shoulders from the way they were wrenched backwards. "Seth, I can't move," she told him, only speaking as a reminder for him to shut her up.

"I know. And you won't be able to talk in a moment," he assured her.

She felt him shifting behind her, now straddling her back. The sound of more tape being peeled from the roll came near to her left ear, then she felt it being stuck down to her cheek. She closed her mouth, wanting to allow the tape to seal it up properly.

Seth wrapped the tape several times around her head, making it tight and secure. When he was done, he tore the roll free, and threw it aside on the bed.

"Mmmmpph!" Bayley yelled into the gag, writhing around pathetically on the bed. She looked up at him with wide eyes that clearly displayed how turned on she was.

"That won't do you any good," Seth said matter of fact as he got off the bed. "You won't be escaping and throwing your freedom in my face this time. You can lie there and wait until I come back. I've got a visit to make to Bean and Gone."

"Wmmmmt? Nmmmm!" Bayley yelped, realising he was going to go and leave her tied, gagged and unable to escape. Inside, she was loving it. It was the ultimate helpless situation to be in.

"You heard," Seth said coolly. "If I was you, I'd lie still and quiet. Trying to shout or free yourself isn't going to happen, so don't bother. I'll be back as soon as I can. Or maybe I won't. I guess you'll find out whenever I return."

Seth rolled Bayley onto her side, leaned down and planted a kiss on the tape over her mouth.

"Mmmm," she groaned in response.

When Seth let go of her, Bayley fell back into position lying on her stomach. Paying no attention to the occasional muffled noise from her, he got dressed, then went and had a wash in the bathroom. He was now ready to leave. Before doing so, he stood by the bed, looking down at the gorgeous girl wearing only her nightwear, handcuffed and taped up. A large part of him wanted to stay and torment her for a while before the inevitable sex. But no, he had to go further than that this time after the way she had acted after escaping the last time she had been tied up. He had to assert dominance over her, especially because that was exactly what she also wanted to happen.

"Not getting free this time, I see?" he commented as she pointlessly wriggled her wrists in the cuffs.

"Mm Cmmt," she mumbled angrily.

"Good. I'll say hi to Daga for you."

With that, Seth left the bedroom and closed the door behind him, delighting in hearing another muffled yell from Bayley as he did so.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Seth walked into Bean and Gone, happy to see plenty of customers in there for morning coffee. As ever, he savoured the delightful smell of coffee beans as it filled his nostrils.

Excusing his way through the line of customers, Seth walked to the back of the store, then around the end of the counter, greeting a couple of young female employees on the way.

Elena D'Agostino, the coffee shop's manager, was standing with her back to Seth, operating one of the coffee machines. It ran with an incredibly loud rumbling sound, explaining why Elena hadn't heard Seth's voice.

When Elena had the coffee prepared, she turned around and saw Seth standing there. A smile appeared on her face as she greeted him in her strong Italian accent. "Ah, Seth, good morning. How are you?"

"Morning, Daga," he smiled. "I'm well. Looks like business is good?"

"Yes. Is always busy this time of day," she replied in her customary slightly broken English. She served her customer with his drink, then took an order and payment from the next person in line before speaking to Seth again. "No Bayley?" she enquired.

"She's tied up at home this morning," he replied, congratulating himself on the hidden wit in the answer. "I said I'd come down and get us a couple of coffees."

"I fix them for you next. How is your renovation work going?"

"Yeah, well, thanks," Seth replied. "We'll be over there later to put some more work in. We have the new kitchen in and finished now. The only problem we've had for the past couple weeks or so is a nuisance old woman who lives next door. She keeps complaining about the noise."

Elena laughed sarcastically as she continued working. "You are supposed to work in silence, yes?"

"Apparently," Seth laughed. "Bay has been working on the garden whenever we've been there, and she's been deliberately making as much noise as she could. It takes a lot to make her angry, but she can be relentless when she gets going. It's pretty much a war between them at this point. Luckily, the garden is about half done already. The work is going at a very good pace actually, considering we're doing most of it ourselves. Before we know it, we'll be finished and ready to sell."

"You will show me pictures?" Elena asked, meaning when the house was finished.

"I'll do better than that. We'll have you over to have a look around if you like?"

"Yes, I would like that," Elena said with a smile. While they had been chatting, she had served her customer and fixed the two coffees for Seth and Bayley, knowing what they liked to order without needing to ask. She handed the two cups to him.

"Thanks, Daga. I'd better take off. Bayley will be wondering where I got to."

"Sure. Say hi to her for me."

"Will do," Seth promised. "Have a good day."

"You too," Elena said before turning back to the line of waiting customers.

* * *

Arriving back home, Seth couldn't wait to get up to the bedroom. He couldn't imagine a way that Bayley could possibly have gotten free from how he had left her. But then he had thought that before and she had outdone him.

"Bay, I'm home," he called out on his way up the stairs.

"Mppphhh!" came an angry scream from the bedroom. That was a good sign, he thought with a grin.

Carrying both of the coffee cups, Seth had to crouch down and use his elbow to operate the bedroom door handle. He shoved the door open and walked into the room.

Bayley was now sitting up on the edge of the bed. During the half hour he had been gone, she had apparently managed to break through the tape that had been hogtying her, but the gag and the two pairs of handcuffs remained exactly as they had been when he had left her. Her hair was now a total mess from the thrashing around and struggling she must have been doing. She had an angry look on her face, but he could tell that she was putting it on. Her eyes gave her away, revealing how much she had enjoyed her fruitless bid for freedom.

"Didn't get free then, I see?" Seth commented as if he was remarking on the weather. He walked over and put her coffee on the night stand on her side of the bed. "There's a coffee there if you want it. You'll have to get it, though."

"Lmm mm gm!" Bayley pleaded, bouncing up and down in frustration on the end of the bed, looking up at him.

"No way," he replied with a laugh. "You wanted me to tie you up properly, so I did. Daga says hi, by the way. I told her you were tied up at home."

Bayley made an annoyed growling noise into the tape at the joke he had made at her expense.

Ignoring her, Seth sat down on a chair in the corner of the room, put his feet up on the end of the bed and pulled out his phone. "I'm going to take half an hour to enjoy this coffee and read the sports news," he reported. "When I've done that, maybe I'll let you go, if you're lucky."

Rolling her eyes and sighing, Bayley lay back down on the bed, looking at him. She was doing her best to win him over with puppy dog eyes, but it wasn't going to work. He wasn't even looking at her. She resigned herself to waiting for freedom. This time, at last, she had been defeated. She had plenty of time, though, to plot revenge.


	14. Chapter 14

Throwing the last load of carpet trimmings into the dumpster on the driveway, Seth felt a real sense of accomplishment. Barring some finishing touches to decoration and cleaning, Bayllins Property Developers were ready to put their first project on the market for rent. Seth had spent the morning with Bayley, working on laying carpets in the two smaller bedrooms. It had been the final task on the very long list which had seen them take house from a shell of building with very little worth saving, to a home that any young family would hopefully want to live in.

A lot of time, blood and sweat had been put into the house, Seth thought with a smile. There had been no tears. He and Bayley had greatly enjoyed working together on the project. As they had gone along, Bayley had learned even more about DIY, and about gardening as well. The latter had been self-taught as Seth had worked inside the house while she had transformed the front and rear gardens from being an overgrown shambles to real showpieces with picturesque lawns and flowerbeds. Looking around the front garden, Seth felt proud of his fiancée and lucky to be with her. She was loving, beautiful, talented, hard-working and such a quick learner. What more could any man want from his partner?

Seth heard a car pull onto the driveway of the house next to theirs. Looking in that direction, he saw the one downside they had experienced during the renovations – Mrs Chandler, the miserable old battle axe who lived next door.

Since early on in the project, Mrs Chandler had made a point of complaining about as many things as she could, as often as should, particularly noise. How exactly a house was supposed to be renovated in silence and without occasionally making a bit of a mess, Seth wasn't sure. He couldn't help being amused as he thought back to how personally Bayley had taken the irritating interventions and complaints from the old woman. The ongoing altercations had revealed a new side of his girl, showing that if she was pushed, she wouldn't stand idly by and take shit; she would fire back and give as good as she got.

Laughing to himself, he recalled Bayley going through the overgrown rear garden with a chainsaw, and making sure that when she drilled holes in walls inside the house she had done it as loudly as possible.

"What are you laughing at?" Bayley asked happily as she walked out of the house behind him. Following his line of sight, she saw their neighbour getting out of her car.

"Just thinking about you and your best friend over there," Seth said, a smile on his face.

"Oh, hey, Mrs Chandler!" Bayley called out with a wave, using a friendly tone that had no sincerity behind it.

The old woman scowled back at them, not returning the greeting in any way.

"We're ready to put the house on the market," Bayley called out. "We'll do our best to find some noisy neighbours for you!"

"Bay!" Seth said, laughing at her.

Bayley shrugged. "It's not true, but hopefully it gives the miserable old crone something to worry about."

Seth put an arm around her shoulders and ushered her back into the house. "Come on, inside before you cause any more trouble."

"Me? Cause trouble?" Bayley asked innocently. "I would never."

"A likely story," Seth chuckled. "Right, I'm going to finishing tidying up upstairs."

"I'll do the kitchen," Bayley said. Since they had been using the kitchen to cook meals on the days they had worked on the house, it needed a once over before the house was fit to be viewed by potential renters.

Exchanging a quick peck on the lips, they parted ways. Seth headed upstairs to finish tidying and presenting the bedrooms they had been working on that morning, while Bayley went through to the kitchen.

Putting on the custom made apron that Seth had bought her as a joke gift, Bayley smiled. It was purple, with her yellow Bayley Buddy character on the front. A lot of people would have found it silly, but she loved it. She put on a pair of black rubber gloves and got to work. She wanted to get through the cleaning quickly, because she had one more thing she wanted to do in the house before they left it for the last time before it was occupied by others, and it wasn't something Seth knew about.

Fifteen minutes later, after a less thorough clean than she would usually have given the kitchen, Bayley took off the apron, folded it up and put it on one of the counters. She washed the lather from the cleaning liquid she had used off the gloves, then opened one of the drawers near the sink. That was where she had left the items she needed for Seth's little surprise. She had recently found the same two pairs of handcuffs and roll of purple duct tape that he had used to restrain her one morning a few weeks back. Turnabout was fair play, as he was about to learn.

Cramming the two pairs of handcuffs into her jeans pockets, Bayley walked out of the kitchen with the duct tape in hand. She had kept the gloves on, since she intended to cover Seth's mouth with her hand and couldn't stand the idea of him drooling onto her palm. The thought triggered what he infuriatingly called her OCD, and made her shudder.

Walking quietly up the stairs, Bayley listened carefully to figure out which of the bedrooms Seth was in. She heard what sounded like a blanket being put on a bed, telling her which room to go to and that she was just in time. He was almost finished with his job.

Perfect, Bayley thought when she stopped for a second in the doorway of the room Seth was in. He was standing with his back to her, bent over the bed as he straightened up the blanket for the perfect presentation.

"I'm almost done here," Seth said to her as he worked, having heard her footsteps.

Wasting no time, Bayley dropped the roll of duct tape to the floor, ran forward and jumped on Seth's back. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clamped a hand over this mouth as tightly as she could.

Seth cried out in surprise into her hand as her momentum made them both fall onto the bed. He rolled, and ended up lying on his side, still in Bayley's trap.

"So, about that morning a few weeks ago," Bayley said into his ear, sounding about as menacing as she could ever manage.

Seth struggled against her, but her legs around his waist and the fact that he was lying on one of his arms kept him pinned down. She knew, of course, that if he really wanted to fight her off, he could. But that wouldn't be in the spirit of the games they played with each other.

"No! Lie still!" Bayley ordered, turned on to the maximum by her power over him as he grunted into her hand. "I'm going to take my hand away for a moment. Don't make a sound, or things will go a lot worse for you. Understand?"

Seth didn't respond in any way, which Bayley took for compliance.

"You know I'm going to get you back for this," Seth said threateningly as soon as she removed her hand.

Bayley sighed as she set about pulling his arm out from under him and cuffing his wrists behind his back. "Mister, this me getting you back. And I told you not to make a sound."

"The problem is I'm the one who does the telling around here," Seth replied, taunting her despite his situation.

"Doesn't look like it," Bayley said. With his wrists secured, she further surprised him by shifting her position and applying the second set to his ankles. He hadn't expected that.

"Where did you get those?" he demanded.

"You know exactly where I get them, since you hid them there. What you didn't expect was for me to find them." Bayley got off the bed, picked up the roll of tape and showed it to him. "I found something else in the same place. Remember this? Remember what you did with it?"

"Yeah, I remember," Seth said, resigning himself to the same fate. "Damn, you looked hot wrapped in that."

"Good for you. Now we can see how it looks on you," Bayley said with a sweet smile. She got back onto the bed and set about using the tape to bind the handcuffs around his wrists to those around his ankles, forcing him into a hogtie in exactly the same inescapable way that he had done to her.

Lying on his side, now unable to move, Seth glared at her. "Now what, bitch?"

Bayley raised her eyebrows. "Bitch? Now what kind of way is that to talk to your fiancée? I'm going to have to show you what happens to men like you who abuse women." She clamped a hand back over his mouth. "First you shut them up, like that."

"Mmpph!" Seth growled into the rubber.

"Then you hurt them," Bayley said, seductively licking her lips like a vampire about to seek her teeth into a victim. The analogy was particularly accurate, Seth thought, since he knew what was coming. She liked to bite him, to hear him moan in both pleasure and pain, and to leave her mark on his neck. It would be by no means the first time he would have to show up to a week of WWE shows and have the makeup girls cover up unsightly bruising on his neck. He was sure they laughed behind his back about it, but he didn't care.

Keeping her hand over his mouth, Bayley leaned down and went to work. She started by lightly nipping his skin with her teeth, just enough to cause pain and get a reaction from him. From there, she slowly got more and more aggressive, until he was groaning and squirming against his bonds.

After minutes of that, Bayley finally lifted her mouth away from his neck, feeling herself breathless, sweating and soaking wet for him. She wouldn't be getting off on this occasion, though. As the one who was bound, that was his privilege.

"Fuck, I'm so turned on," Bayley said. She slowly removed her hand from his mouth, flexing it to ward off the cramp that had been threatening to set in.

"Oww," Seth groaned as he took in a couple of deep breaths. "You and those fucking teeth of yours."

Bayley knew he was saying that as part of the game. "My mouth can do other things too," she promised sweetly.

"I think you should prove that," he challenged.

"Oh, I will. But I need to keep you quiet." Bayley picked up the duct tape again and wrapped it around his head, covering his mouth. She doubted it would stick very well because of his beard, but it didn't need to be there for long, the way it had been on her last turn, she thought. She had totally lost track of how long he had kept her bound and gagged on the bed that morning, taunting her about her inability to escape. He was lucky he was going to get away this lightly after doing that to her.

Bayley unbuttoned Seth's jeans and pulled them down enough to expose his boxers. She pulled them down also, and breathed a soft moan of delight when she saw his erect shaft waiting for her attention.

Turning him over as close to being on his back as he could manage while tied up, Bayley leaned down and took him in her mouth, licking and sucking at the head of his shaft as she massaged the lower part of it with her hands. After being together so long, she knew exactly how to give him what for him was the perfect head. After what she had already done to him, she knew it would be only a matter of minutes before he shot his load into her mouth.

When she sensed his climax approaching, Bayley heightened his pleasure even further by moaning in delight herself, knowing that her would feel the vibrations against his cock, and that would send him over the edge. She heard him moaning into his gag, then he exploded into her mouth.

Bayley lifted her head, swallowing most of his fluid. Some of it had leaked down her chin, so she quickly wiped it away before it could drop onto the brand new blanket. "Fuck, baby," she breathed. Swearing was rare for her, which told Seth just how much she had enjoyed it.

Crawling up the bed, Bayley unwrapped the tape from around his mouth. "I'd call us even," she said.

"Not even close, but you give amazing head," Seth said breathlessly.

"I had to do that in this house before we rented it out," she said as she set about releasing the hog tie and then the handcuffs. "I can't explain why, I just needed to. Now I feel like we're finished here, and we can go onto the next thing. The question is what is the next thing? A new project?"

As she freed his wrists, Seth sat up, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her on the end of the nose. It was an affectionate gesture that he liked to make, and in any case he wasn't going to kiss her properly until she washed out her mouth. "I'm thinking of something else," he said.

Bayley smiled. "Oh, what's that?"

"I think it's time we got married."

END


End file.
